There are few things more important to a statesman than credibility and consistency when it comes to administering a nation’s foreign policy.  The Obama administration’s response to recent events in Egypt and Libya underscore its foreign policy confusion.  The White House has a peculiar habit of treating allied governments and adversarial governments as equals.  This stems from President Barack Obama’s professed belief that all nations are indeed equal in Washington’s eyes.  Of course, the reality of international politics is quite the opposite.  More than two-thousand years of human history support this fact.   Some states, whose national interests overlap and intersect, join together as allies.  States whose national interests collide tend to have more adversarial relationships.

Understanding the role alliance systems play…