I wrote The Idea That is America because the country I love has lost its way in the world. An American diplomat told me recently that when she meets foreign diplomats and citizens in the country where she is posted, they often walk away when they find out that she is American, not wanting to be seen with or even near her. In much of the world today America is a byword for unilateralism, arrogance, and worse.

Foreign policy isn’t a popularity contest. As the world’s greatest military power and largest single economy, we can expect many nations to scapegoat us, hide behind us, or resent us for specific policies. But I grew up believing that ours was a country that tried to stand for good in the world and that upheld the fundamental values that bind us together as a nation.

As I read our history, the values that our founders embraced and that our greatest presidents, poets, soldiers and songwriters have celebrated are seven: liberty, democracy, equality, justice, tolerance, humility, and faith.

When we remember these principles our path in the world becomes a bit clearer. A journalist we hosted at Princeton described traveling with the Marines in Bandeh Aceh, a part of Indonesia ravaged by the tsunami that received critical aid from the U.S. military. Everyone greeted the American troops with cheers and waves. “They ate it up,” she said, “particularly given the way they are received everywhere else.”

This is who we want to be. We have struggled since our founding to give our grand principles meaning, not simply for some Americans, but for all Americans. That quest can never be fully achieved, but the gap between the ideal and the real drives our history forward.

Our task today—as the soldiers in Bandeh Aceh saw—is not simply to strive to realize our principles at home, but to be equally true to them abroad. We need a values-based foreign policy that is actually true to our values. If we can do that we will recover our allies and lighten our burdens. And we will regain our moral compass in the world, a vital source of our power, our influence, and our very identity.