The Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy is a group of U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 scholars, policy

Policy

A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...

 makers and citizen

Citizenship

Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...

s who oppose the current U.S. foreign policy

Foreign policy

A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...

, which they view as pursuing an American empire. The coalition questions both the morality

Morality

Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...

 and the efficacy of using military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

 force and diplomatic

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

 pressure to achieve the aims of political and economic liberalization

Economic liberalization

Economic liberalization is a very broad term that usually refers to fewer government regulations and restrictions in the economy in exchange for greater participation of private entities; the doctrine is associated with classical liberalism...

. As opposed to the increasingly prevalent geopolitical philosophy of neoconservatism

Neoconservatism

Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....

, the coalition advocates foreign policy realism.

Members of the coalition include Andrew Bacevich

Andrew Bacevich

Andrew J. Bacevich, Sr. is a professor of international relations at Boston University and a retired career officer in the United States Army...

, Stephen Walt

Stephen Walt

Stephen Martin Walt is a professor of international affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Among his most prominent works are and . He coauthored The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy with John Mearsheimer.-Education and career:In 1983, he received a Ph.D. in...

, John Mearsheimer

John Mearsheimer

John J. Mearsheimer is an American professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is an international relations theorist. Known for his book on offensive realism, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, more recently Mearsheimer has attracted attention for co-authoring and publishing...

, Leon Hadar

Leon Hadar

Leon Hadar, is a global affairs analyst, journalist, blogger and author. A long-time critic of American policy in the Middle East, and a former research fellow with the Cato Institute, Hadar is a contributing editor for the American Conservative and a regular contributor to Chronicles and Reason...

, Anatol Lieven

Anatol Lieven

Peter Paul Anatol Lieven is a British author, journalist, and policy analyst. He is presently a Senior Researcher at the New America Foundation, where he focuses on US global strategy and the War on Terrorism, Associated Scholar of the Transnational Crisis Project, Chair of International...

, Scott McConnell

Scott McConnell

Scott McConnell is an American journalist best known as a founding editor of The American Conservative.In 1968, as a student at a New Hampshire boarding school, McConnell canvassed for Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy. After receiving a Ph.D in history at Columbia University, McConnell returned...

, Doug Bandow

Doug Bandow

Douglas Bandow is a former columnist with Copley News Service and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He resigned from Cato in 2005 due a scandal involving payments for columns from lobbyist Jack Abramoff and wrote about it in the Los Angeles Times. As of March 2009, Bandow is again working at...

, Nicholas Berry

Nicholas Berry

Nicholas Berry may refer to:*Nic Berry, Australian rugby union player*Nick Berry, British actor and singer...

, Justin Logan, Christopher Layne

Christopher Layne

Christopher Layne, PhD is Robert M. Gates Chair in Intelligence and National Security at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. An international relations theorist, he is a noted neorealist and critic of liberal internationalism. In his writings on U.S...

, Christopher Preble, Steve Clemons, David Isenberg, Carolyn Eisenberg, Jeffrey Record, Charles Peña, and David Hendrickson.