Pole A: Non-interventionist score 0
Other countries' sovereignty as a limit. Common argument for it: respecting others' sovereignty is the basis of coexistence between States and protects one's own country from interference.
POLITICAL POSITION · DIMENSION 6 OF 12
Foreign intervention: non-interventionist or nationalist
Foreign intervention is the dimension that records the criterion a person uses for the country to act beyond its own borders.
What it is
Foreign intervention is the dimension that records the criterion a person uses for the country to act beyond its own borders. At the Non-interventionist pole, other countries' sovereignty is a limit, and the country avoids interfering in others' internal affairs; at the Nationalist pole, national interest is the criterion that prevails, and acting abroad, including interfering, is acceptable when that interest is at stake.
What the dimension covers
- sovereignty and interference in other countries' affairs
- priority of national interest over international commitments
- protection of nationals and assets abroad
- joining treaties that limit what the country may do
The two poles
0 · Non-interventionistNationalist · 100
Pole B: Nationalist score 100
National interest as the criterion. Common argument for it: a government answers first to its own citizens, and external commitments hold as long as they serve that interest.
How the instrument measures it
The Evidence instrument (schema evidence-pol-1) records this dimension as a number from 0 to 100: 0 is the Non-interventionist pole, 100 is the Nationalist pole. The number comes from your answers to the questionnaire or from a result imported from another instrument by URL; either way it is a self-assessment, computed in your browser, and nothing reaches the server without an explicit action from you. With no answer for this dimension, it stays unknown (UNKNOWN), never 50.
| No. | Statement | Agreeing points to |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | The country should not take sides in other countries' internal disputes. | Non-interventionist |
| 18 | The national interest should come before commitments made to international organizations. | Nationalist |
| 30 | Signed international agreements should be honored even when they go against an immediate national interest. | Non-interventionist |
| 42 | The country should use its economic and political influence to advance its interests in the region. | Nationalist |
Formula p = (resposta - 1) / 4 if agreeing points to Nationalist; p = 1 - (resposta - 1) / 4 if it points to Non-interventionist; placar = 100 * media(p)
There are 4 original statements, with opposite directions to reduce the effect of agreeing with everything. Answers run from 1 to 5 (1 Strongly disagree, 2 Disagree, 3 Neither agree nor disagree, 4 Agree, 5 Strongly agree); "Don't know" does not score. Each answer becomes a position between 0 and 1, the score is the mean position times 100, and confidence combines coverage (how many of the 4 statements scored) and consistency (how far answers point the same way): high from 0.75, medium from 0.50.
In the Evidence portable format, this dimension is the intervention parameter of the profile URL. Scale, evidence states and limitations are in the instrument method; the terms are in the glossary.
Why it is a separate dimension
It differs from Diplomacy, which is about the means (force or negotiation), and from Foreign trade, which is about economic exchange. Here the question is the criterion for acting abroad.
Compare with Diplomacy and Foreign trade.
Frequently asked questions
Does nationalist here mean patriotism?
Not exactly. The pole records national interest as the criterion for acting abroad. Attachment to one's country and national identity are related topics that political philosophy treats separately.
Does the Brazilian Constitution say anything about this?
Art. 4 of the Constitution lists principles of Brazil's international relations, among them national independence, self-determination of peoples and non-intervention. The dimension does not assess the Constitution; it records the respondent's preference.
What does a score of 50 on Foreign intervention mean?
That the answers ended halfway between Non-interventionist and Nationalist, through balance or through a mix of answers in both directions. It is not the same as moderation or the political center, and it says nothing about the other 11 dimensions.
Is my result sent or published?
No. The computation runs in your browser, nothing reaches the server without an explicit action from you, and the result page is not indexed by search engines. Political opinion is sensitive personal data under Brazil's LGPD (art. 5, II, and art. 11).
Literature and references
- NationalismStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: what nationalism is and the arguments about its value.
- SovereigntyStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: sovereignty and its limits in international law.
- PatriotismStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: the difference between patriotism and nationalism.
- Brazilian Constitution of 1988, art. 4 (Portuguese)Principles of Brazil's international relations.
Reference readings on the topic. None of them validates the Evidence instrument, and no text, question or weight was copied from them.
Conceptual sources of the instrument
The stance toward other countries: not interfering and honoring international commitments (non-interventionist) or asserting the national interest above them (nationalist).
Other dimensions
- Related dimensionDiplomacyMilitarist · Pacifist
- Related dimensionForeign tradeProtectionism · Globalism
- PreviousDiplomacyMilitarist · Pacifist
- NextOwnershipPublic · Private