Stephens: Paul Ryan's Neocon Manifesto

Last summer, the chairman of the House Budget Committee made a foray into foreign-policy land with a speech to the Alexander Hamilton Society in Washington, D.C. About 100 people showed up, and it got next to no coverage. That should now change—and not just because Paul Ryan's views on America's role in the world are no longer a matter of one Wisconsin congressman talking.

Here, in CliffsNotes form, is what the speech tells us about Mr. Ryan. First, that he's an internationalist of the old school; in another day, he would have sat comfortably in the cabinets of Harry Truman, ...