Guiding Foreign Policy Principles

1. U.S. international engagement should recognize the primacy of American sovereignty and the obligation to defend national borders.
   

2. The central purpose of U.S. diplomacy is to serve the national interest. We endorse the careful husbanding of limited resources, both budget and staff, rather than engaging in perpetual, unfunded expansion.
   

3. An increasingly indebted United States is gradually losing economic freedom at home and room for maneuver abroad. We believe the current and projected federal budget deficits, along with the historically high national debt, are unsustainable and should be addressed by both the Executive Branch and the Congress to restore spending restraint, fiscal responsibility, and international confidence in the value of the U.S. Dollar.
   

4. The United States must always maintain strong national defense capabilities to deter acts of foreign aggression and terrorism against our country. We do not believe in unlimited interventions in foreign conflicts, without recourse to Congressional approval.
   

5. A vital element of national power, the Department of State serves the President, who directs foreign policy, but State, like all executive agencies, is accountable to the Congress and the American people under the Constitution.
   

6. Sovereign states have the right and obligation to decide who enters their territory by determining national immigration policies, including enforcing refugee and asylum laws that are in each state’s national interest.
   

7. We believe in strong, sovereign nations. To the extent that cooperation between nations in international fora contributes to the prosperity and security of participating states, and serves national interests, we endorse multinational organizations.
   

8. The professional U.S. diplomatic and consular corps should, based on merit, recruit, select, assign, and promote Americans of all backgrounds from across the country, without discrimination or preference on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, or other immutable characteristics.