Tikkun Olam in International Affairs

A Global Service Perspective on American Foreign Policy

Campaign Briefing: Foreign Policy and Global Engagement

2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN

July 24, 2026

I. The Concept and Its Application

Tikkun Olam is a Hebrew phrase meaning 'repair of the world.' In Jewish tradition, it refers to the obligation to act in ways that heal what is broken — not simply to avoid harm, but to actively contribute to the repair of what is damaged in the world. It is a concept of moral obligation that extends beyond the immediate community to encompass the broader human family.

This campaign invokes it not to claim ownership of a concept that belongs to a specific tradition, but because it describes, more precisely than any available alternative, the moral framework that should animate American foreign policy at its best. American foreign policy has been most successful — most durable, most widely supported, most genuinely beneficial — when it has operated from a sense of obligation to the broader human community rather than from pure national interest narrowly defined.

II. Where the Concept Meets Practice

The Marshall Plan repaired a devastated Europe — not out of pure altruism, but out of a recognition that a stable, prosperous Europe was in the American interest and that the repair of what the war had broken was a moral obligation that the United States, uniquely capable, was positioned to fulfill. PEPFAR saved millions of lives from HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa — a program that was justified to the American public in terms of humanitarian obligation and which produced strategic returns in the form of goodwill and partnership that pure national interest calculation would not have predicted.

These are not exceptions to American foreign policy. They are its best expressions. The moments when American power has been most durably beneficial — and most genuinely celebrated by those it reached — have been the moments when it has been directed at repair rather than merely at control.

III. The Application to This Administration

This administration will direct American foreign policy toward the repair of what is broken: the multilateral institutions that have weakened, the treaty relationships that have frayed, the diplomatic channels that have been abandoned, the development commitments that have been defunded.

This is not naivety. It is strategy. An America that is known for keeping its commitments, for showing up after disasters, for investing in the conditions of stability and opportunity in fragile states — that America has more allies, more partners, more capacity to lead when leadership is required. The repair of the world and the advancement of American interests are not in tension. They are, properly understood, the same project.

Martin A. Ginsburg, RN

2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN