Provocative piece by Paul Krugman today on Neo-isolationism, the foreign policy that has become embraced by a new generation of conservatives, now ascendent in the White House and the Republican Party. Old-School isolationists took a jaundiced view of any American role in the affairs of other countries, and led the opposition to the League of Nations, Lend-Lease, the draft, etc. The Neo-isolationists, recognizing our role as the world's only superpower, support American unilateral involvement overseas, but oppose American participation in international treaties and alliances, in which the U.S. is but one country among many, as well as adherence to international law. According to Krugman, both isolationist traditions share "the same impulses — an assertion of moral superiority, an unwillingness to consider alternative points of view...(w)e obviously can't ignore the world, but many Americans reject the idea that other countries should have any say over what we do." In the long run, of course, we have to accept reality; if we expect other countries to play by the rules, we have to as well.