Introduction
The concept of “National Interest” is one of the most important concepts in international relations. The concept encompasses a country’s goals and ambitions whether economic, military or cultural. It is the interest of a nation as a whole held to be an independent entity, separate from the interests of subordinate areas or groups and also of other nations or supranational groups. In the instant write-up, the writer has elaborated on the concept of National Interest while touching on almost all of its important aspects.
Meaning of Interest
In the discourse of politics, the concept of interest is a contested and problematic idea. Though it has a range of meanings, ‘interest’ is a significant example of a word with specialized legal and economic senses which, within a particular social and economic history, has been extended to a very general meaning.Although its etymology is complex and difficult to trace, it is possible to use the word ‘interest’ in both its objective sense (a general or natural concern, having an objective right, claim or stake in something) and its subjective sense (a general curiosity or having the power to attract curiosity or attention). This is a distinction now preserved in the negatives disinterested (not affected by objective involvement in a matter – impartial) and uninterested (not being attracted to something or having no power to attract – a subjective judgement).
National Interest
According to Hans J. Morgenthau, the idea of the national interest in general resembles the constitution of the United States of America in two points: general welfare and due process clauses. Thus the idea of the national interest has two factors: One is rationally demanded and, therefore, of necessity; the other is changeable and decided by situations. In a world consisting of many competing and opposing nations for power, their survivals are their necessary and minimum requisites. Thus all nations do what they cannot help but do: protect their physical, political and cultural identity against encroachments by other nations.
Evolution of the Concept
It took a long time before a national interest was recognized and became the basic starting point in foreign policy making. During the Renaissance, Niccolò Machiavelli in Italy, Jean Bodin in France, Hugo Grotius in Holland and Thomas Hobbes in England gave prominence to the concept of national interest. They all believed that a state’s political behaviour should be subject to concerns of national interest. Moreover, they elaborated on the rationale for taking the national interest into account in the development of foreign policy. But none of them denied God, or “divine right,” as a factor. They could not completely break away from the idea that a monarch’s power was derived from God. They still believed that individual monarchs represented the nation’s interest and that the monarch was the locus of the most fundamental interest of a country — sovereignty. During the French Enlightenment, Rousseau raised the theory of ‘people’s sovereignty’ in his book “The Social Contract”. This was great progress from the notion that national interests belonged to the individual monarch. Rousseau believed a country was a political body that consisted of all the people and was based upon a social contract. The people were the custodians of sovereignty which was the most fundamental national interest and was based upon the will of the total populace.
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