We Americans have long been viewed by other nations with a mix of both admiration and exasperation – admiration for our exuberance and optimism, exasperation at our sometimes childish refusal to take responsibility for the obligations of global citizenship that come with our superpower status.

In recent months, the Bush administration has built a defiantly unilateral foreign policy, only temporarily humbled by September 11. The U.S. has backed out of the Kyoto treaty, spurned small weapons talks, and withdrawn from the U.N. Conference on Racism. Despite the anthrax scare, we killed a draft treaty enforcing the global ban on bio-weapons, and the administration is set to withdraw from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty.

Can we continue to trash global agreements and still expect other nations to follow our lead? Becoming an adult means realizing that we’re not the center of the universe but part of a larger community. September 11 taught us that we urgently need help from other nations to resist a threat that can strike anywhere at any time.

What would a grown-up foreign policy look like? What principles should guide our graduation to adulthood? At a minimum, a wise and mature foreign policy would:

• Obey international law. We invoke international law when it’s convenient; discard it when it’s not. Rejecting global agreements replaces the rule of law with the law of the jungle.
  
  
• Adopt policies consistent with the values we preach. America has long supported corrupt regimes and shortsighted policies that trade away our core values for quick profits, harming ourselves in the end.
  
  
• Treat others with the full respect due them as equal members of the global community.
  
  
• Support those less fortunate. We rank last among all industrialized nations in development aid.
  
  
• Don’t throw temper tantrums. An eye for an eye makes everyone blind. Justice is not attainable by force alone. Long-term stability requires a commitment to communication and negotiation.
  
  
• Mete out punishment but spare the innocent. Punishment that harms innocents only breeds retaliation.