While the magazine has always welcomed a variety of conservative and centrist views, the prevailing editorial position—or disposition—has been one of realism. Initially, this was something that Irving—a New York intellectual accustomed to focusing on the role of ideas—did not altogether share. In the lead piece that he contributed to our first issue—“Foreign Policy in an Age of Ideology”—he declared the traditional conception of national interest to be “dead beyond resurrection”—thereby directly challenging the validity of the new magazine’s name! But over time the National Interest has succeeded in converting its publisher, and he has now sometimes taken to describing himself as a neoconservative neorealist when the subject of foreign policy comes up.