A Citizen’s View of ‘National Interest’

Abstract

There is no ‘national interest’, at least not in a singular and objective sense. Instead, there are multiple interpretations of national interest based on different positions (Ritchie 2011). Four positions can be discerned. First, perceptions of national interest by virtue of being an individual member of the national community; second, by virtue of being a modern urban-industrial island state; third, by virtue of ascribing to our collective self a particular national identity or role conception; and fourth, by virtue of being part of a global human community and society of states in terms of a collective vision of a preferable global order.