The musings below aside, there's really something more troubling about Brooks' idea. In the real world, simple 2-dimensional representations of American politics aren't a great model -- the issue space is highly multi-dimensional. So when you reduce things to two dimensions you necessarily wind up simplifying. Which allows Brooks to pull off a neat sleight-of-hand in terms of foreign policy. In essence, he pits the atavistic nationalism of Pat Buchanan against the atavistic nationalism of Charles Krauthammer. Lost in the shuffle here -- defined out of existence, really -- is the legacy of liberal internationalism.

There's no room in the Brooks dynamic for, say, John Ikenberry, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and the America Abroad bloggers generally. No room for Howard Dean or, on the Republican side, Chuck Hagel and Jim Leach. No room for the view that America should engage with the world but not seek to dominate the world. There's no room for Kenneth Roth or Amnesty International.

The essence of the Brooksian dynamic is to simply assert that the sole true measure of global engagement is willingness to employ military force -- all the progressive globalists are Iraq War supporters.

When you think about the actual dynamic of the war in the international sphere, however, this begins to look absurd. The war was, famously, massively unpopular throughout the world. Opposed by majorities in Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America. Opposed by majorities in Canada and Mexico. Opposed -- vehemently -- by the very Middle Eastern peoples it was supposed to bring the blessings of liberty and democracy. Opposed, indeed, by public opinion everywhere outside Israel and the United States of America and, in the latter country, with support only secured by means of a massive campaign of deception.

To see refusal to back such a venture as per se indicative of an inward-looking attitude is ridiculous. A person serious about engaging with the forces of globalization and the fact of interdependence would and should have noticed right away that something was amiss. Seeking to cooperate with the rest of the world is a perfectly reputable globalist impulse.