There is no need for speculation about whether or not Ayn Rand supported preemption or opposed isolationism. Clearly she did--when and if these were consistent with America’s self-interest and survival.
“…Whether a slave society was conquered or chose to be enslaved, it can claim no national rights and no recognition of such ‘rights’ by civilized countries—just as a mob of gangsters cannot demand a recognition of its ‘rights’ and a legal equality with an industrial concern or a university, on the grounds that the gangsters chose by unanimous vote to engage in that particular kind of group activity.
“Dictatorship nations are outlaws. Any free nation had the right to invade Nazi Germany and today has the right to invade Soviet Russia, Cuba or any other slave pen. Whether a free nation chooses to do so or not is a matter of its own self-interest, not of respect for the non-existent ‘rights’ of gang rulers. It is not a free nation’s duty to liberate other nations at the price of self-sacrifice, but a free nation has the right to do it, when and if it so chooses.”
[from “Collectivized Rights”]
“…Just as an individual has the right of self-defense, so has a free country if attacked…”
[from “The Roots of War”]
“…If some ‘pacifist’ society renounced the retaliatory use of force, it would be left helplessly at the mercy of the first thug who decided to be immoral. Such a society would achieve the opposite of its intention: instead of abolishing evil, it would encourage and reward it.” [from“The Nature of Government”]
“…When certain statist groups, counting, apparently, on a total collapse of American self-esteem, dare to go so far as to urge America’s surrender into slavery without a fight, under the slogan “Better Red than Dead”…the only proper answer to an ultimatum of that kind is “Better See the Reds Dead.” [from“Choose Your Issues”]
Given these clear principles, there can be little doubt that, if Ayn Rand were alive today, she would be advocating the same basic approach to foreign policy presently being promoted by ARI.
| 
