This article is about the generic international affairs term. For the political journal, seeThe National Interest.
"State interest" redirects here. For the legal concept, seeGovernment interest.
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Thenational interest is asovereign state's goals and ambitions – be they economic, military, cultural, or otherwise – taken to be the aim of itsgovernment.[1][2]
The Italian phraseragione degli stati was first used byGiovanni della Casa around the year 1547.[3]
The expression "reason of state" (ragione di stato) was formulated in 1580, found in the works ofGiovanni Botero, who was influenced by, and wrote criticisms of the Italian diplomat and political thinkerNiccolò Machiavelli, popularly known as the author ofThe Prince and theDiscourses on Livy.[4][3] Prominently, Chief MinisterCardinal Richelieu justified France's intervention on theProtestant side, despite its ownCatholicism, in theThirty Years' War (1618–48) as being in the national interest in order to block the increasing power of the CatholicHoly Roman Emperor.[citation needed] At Richelieu's prompting,Jean de Silhon defended the concept ofraison d'État as "a mean between what conscience permits and affairs require."[5][6][7]
Within the field ofinternational relations, national interest has frequently been assumed to comprise the pursuit of power, security and wealth.[8][9][10][11][12] Neorealist and liberal institutionalist scholars tend to define national interest as revolving around security and power.[13][14] Liberal scholars view national interests as an aggregation of the preferences of domestic political groups.[15] Constructivist scholars reject that the national interest of states are static and can be assumeda priori; rather, they argue that the preferences of states are shaped through social interactions and are changeable.[10][16][17]
In a February 2020 article forCSIS,Gordon de Brouwer argued: "The national interest has three components—security, prosperity, and social wellbeing—and they should all be part of framing the problem and solutions. All three matter. More than ever, they reinforce each other. Security underpins prosperity, prosperity creates power and pays for security, and a well-functioning society reduces economic and security risks."[12]
Rosenau, James. 1968. "National Interest." pp. 34–40 inInternational Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences 2(1), edited by D. L. Sills and R. K. Merton. New York:Macmillan/Free Press.
Troianiello, Antonino. 1999.Raison d’État et droit public, Thesis paper,Université du Havre, 748 pages.
