Evenhanded policy toward friends and enemies undermines both alliances and deterrence

Evidence

But such charges are, in a profound sense, irrelevant. If “evenhandedness” means treating all alike, it would be a manifestly suicidal policy for any kind of government, American or other, to pursue. In the Middle East as in most other places, one is expected to help one’s friends and to harm one’s enemies. This is well understood, and was classically formulated, a thousand years ago, by the Arab moralist Ibn Hazm: “He who treats friends and enemies alike will arouse distaste for his friendship and contempt for his enmity.” The occasional American tendency to harry friends and court enemies causes understandable bewilderment, and, for lack of a more rational explanation, arouses fear of deep-laid, far-reaching plots. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1675 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Freedom lies in refusing the prescribed choice between friend and enemy — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 156; Evenhandedness toward friends and enemies is a self-defeating foreign policy — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1675

Broader Connections

• Evenhandedness toward friends and enemies is a self-defeating foreign policy #corroborates (0.95) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1675