America's National Interests in Promoting a Transition Toward Sustainability

Among the greatest challenges facing humanity at the dawn of the 21st century is learning how better to meet human needs while restoring and nurturing the planet's life support systems -- in short, the challenges of "sustainable development." If humanity is to meet these challenges and move forward in a transition toward sustainability, it will need to craft a vision of the future that encompasses the multiple interactions among the multiple dimensions of development and environment, as well as a strategy for action that addresses those interactions. Does America in fact have compelling national interests in leading international efforts to shape a transition toward sustainability? Answering this question in a way that could help national policy development requires a more structured, rigorous and hierarchical conceptualization of "national interests" than has been evident in this country's debates about environment and development. This paper proposes such a framework and uses it to identify a hierarchy of national interests and related action priorities that should help to guide the United States' engagement in a global transition toward sustainability.