The Case for Destroying Monsters – A Worthy Cause
Mike R. Pompeo
American Center for Law and Justice
May 23, 2026
What level of global engagement best serves America’s core interests and global security? Is the United States too willing to engage in “interventionism” abroad? John Quincy Adams famously advised against going “abroad in search of monsters to destroy,” a charge that influential figures on both the Left and Right regularly make against American foreign policy. And as the war with Iran continues, it’s certainly a valid question to raise.
On Wednesday, I had the privilege of participating in a rousing debate on this very subject, hosted by the Munk Debate program in Toronto, where I went up against liberal neorealist academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. In line with their academic work, the professors trotted out a series of arguments against American interventionism that veered from outrageous moral relativism to their ultimate core conviction: That it is America (and Israel) that are responsible for the world’s ills.
Read the full article HERE.