Americans conflate friendliness with desirability in international relations

Evidence

“Good” relations are thought to be friendly, cooperative relations; “bad” relations are hostile, antagonistic relations. This usage conflates two very different dimensions: friendliness vs. hostility and desirability vs. undesirability. It reflects the peculiarly American assumption that harmony in international relations is always good and conflict always bad. The identification of good relations with friendly relations, however, is valid only if conflict is never desirable. Most Americans think it was “good” that the Bush administration made U.S. relations with Iraq “bad” by going to war over Kuwait. To avoid the confusion over whether “good” means desirable or harmonious and “bad” undesirable or hostile, I will use “good” and “bad” only to mean desirable and undesirable. Interestingly if perplexingly, Americans endorse competition in American society between opinions, groups, parties, branches of government, businesses. Why Americans believe that conflict is good within their own society and yet bad between societies is a fascinating question which, to the best of my knowledge, no one has seriously studied. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 1357 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Americans conflate harmony with desirability in judging international relations — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 1357; Host-country power relative to the United States determines base claims’ sincerity — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 146; Friendly contact and generalized attitude change are in tension with each other — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1812

Broader Connections

• Americans conflate harmony with desirability in judging international relations #corroborates (0.92) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 1357