What Might John Stuart Mill Say About Engagement?

J.S. Mill and Burma, Contentions, August 27, 2009. "Van Jackson, founder and executive editor of Asia Chronicle, has written a column titled 'Principles impede progress for Burma,' attacking those—like a colleague of mine here at the Heritage Foundation—who have the temerity to argue that U.S. policy toward Burma should be based on principles. Jackson, by contrast, prefers the meaningless criterion of effectiveness devoid of any actual objectives. In his pursuit of steely-eyed utilitarianism, Jackson makes the amusing claim that 'British philosopher John Stuart Mill would turn over in his grave at the idea of allowing such a failed policy to continue.' Jackson appears to know just enough about Mill to be dangerous, i.e., that Mill was a utilitarian. True indeed—at least until Mill suffered from a nervous breakdown at the age of 20 and turned to the poetry of the Romantics as a relief from the dust-dry pursuit of utility. Partisans of policy without principle might take a lesson from that."