For the first time since facing an onslaught of criticism this year over his foreign policy views, Sen. Rand Paul spelled out his national security principles Thursday in a comprehensive speech. The Kentucky Republican, who's aggressively laying groundwork for a potential presidential campaign, sought to paint himself as a champion of "conservative realism," a doctrine that skates between the hawkish and dovish ends of the foreign policy spectrum. "Yes, we need a hammer ready, but not every civil war is a nail," he said in New York at the Center for the National Interest, a think-tank founded by former President Richard Nixon.
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Rand Paul hits back at critics with a big foreign policy speech.
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Paul outlines when he thinks the U.S. should use force in foreign entanglements
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The Kentucky Republican is considered to be shaping a potential 2016 presidential run
Paul attempted to address critics that characterize his views as isolationist and was aiming to approach his speech Thursday from the perspective of a major, would-be @placeholder leader, rather than a lawmaker, a spokesman told CNN before the speech.