National Interest in International Relations | CSS IR Notes
Origins of National Interest
The word interest is derived from Latin and means “it concerns, or it makes a difference to”. In the 1930s, Charles Bear wrote the first book concerning national interest. In following years the notion of national interest in IR has been used to describe the underlying rationale for the behavior of states in a threatening global environment, which preserves and protects one‟s values against another.
Statesmen who are responsible for and to their separate publics, and who operate in an uncertain milieu, often have little choice but to put the interest of their own entity above those of others.
National interest is understood to mean a state of affairs valued solely for its benefit to the nation. National interest often becomes synonymous with national egoism, with its disposition of transferring self love onto the national group.
One cannot speak about national interest without reference to values, even if they are a culmination of those held by some or all members of a given society