Question

What is the national interest?
A. By which the independence and sovereignty of our country can be safeguarded.
B. To achieve our economic development.
C. To take steps towards increasing our national power.
D. All of the above.

Answer 1

Hint: We can define National Interests as the objectives, demands, and interests that a nation tries to secure in relations with other nations.

Complete answer: National interest is basically the interest of a state or a nation to achieve its goals and objectives. These goals and objectives may be of any kind including social goals, political goals, economic goals, security objectives, or goals. We can define the national interest by saying that national interest is the goal of the government for securing the country’s security, economic well-being, sociocultural values, military, and international political goals. The state did not directly achieve its national interest. To achieve national interest state set objectives and through foreign policy state achieve them.
Let suppose there is a state X that has its interests in state Y. Then the state X will achieve its interests in state Y through foreign policy tactics.
There are three types of national interests as follows:
1. Primary Interest
2. Interest
3. Permanent Interest
Primary Interest- Primary Interests of a state are those interests of a state upon which a state never compromises. They never change and always remain the same. They include-
1. Territory
2. Nationalism
3. sovereignty
Secondary Interest- Secondary Interests of the states are directly related to the demands and needs of the people of those particular states. They don’t remain the same as their primary interests.
Permanent Interest- Permanent Interests are always based on ideology. The war between two ideologies, communism and capitalism during the Cold War is an example of permanent interest.

Note: The national interest of a state is always its core value and the state never compromises on national interest. National Interest can not be compromised but compromise can be made over the objectives of national interests.