An effective foreign policy requires proportionate thinking. Hysteria and demagoguery can win a few elec-tions, but they can lose wars and economic battles of enormous conse-quence. In the United States, foreign poli-cy making is particularly complex: Even if the president and the executive branch do get things right, the effort will be eviscer-ated if overly ambitious politicians in the legislative branch make a brutal hash of coherent policy.