In the foreword to the just released "National Intelligence Strategy of the United States," the Director of National Intelligence says democracy promotion is the "stoutest pillar" in strengthening U.S. national security. And far from enhancing U.S. security, realist notions, where stability trumps democracy, promote "international instability."

Negroponte writes:

But even though the future holds dangerous challenges both within our borders and beyond, it also presents us with opportunities to support the spread of freedom, human rights, economic growth and financial stability, and the rule of law.

We must identify these opportunities for democratic transformation because autocratic and failed states are breeding grounds of international instability, violence, and misery. For US national security, democracy is that stoutest pillar of support.

The Strategy document itself lists five "Mission Objectives," including:

1. Defeating terrorists at home and aboard by disarming their operational capabilities and seizing the initiative from them by promoting the growth of freedom and democracy. (page 6)

And:

3. Bolster the growth of democracy and sustain peaceful democratic states. We have learned to our peril that the lack of freedom in one state endangers the peace and freedom of others and that failed states are a refuge and breeding ground of extremism. Self-sustaining democratic states are essential to world peace and development.

One pundit recently described realist foreign policy as "clear and sober," and Brent Scowcroft argued much the same in a recent New Yorker profile. But Charles Krauthammer sees it a bit differently here.