John Quincy Adams, as Secretary of State in 1821 said the following: “Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”

Nearly 200 hundred years later we see a slew of Presidential wannabees, for the most part, talking of more foreign military interventionism in the Middle East in particular.

Who, based on the things they’ve said, seems the most likely to use force and establish interventionist policies?

Dr. A. Trevor Thrall, an associate professor at George Mason University in the Department of Public & International Affairs and a Senior fellow for the Cato Institute’s Defense and Foreign Policy Department took the Council of Foreign Relations Presidential Candidates Use of Force Tracker and tweeked it to simplify it for easier comparison among candidates.

By placing a point value on various modes of intervention, Thrall was able to rank the Presidential candidates from most hawkish and interventionist to least.

The point system is as follows:

Calls for ground forces

High (i.e. thousands of troops): 100 points

Medium (i.e. embed with Iraqi forces): 50 points

Low (i.e. Special Forces): 25 points

Calls for Air Power

High (i.e. carpet bombing): 50 points

Medium (i.e. air support for Iraqi forces): 25 points

Low (i.e. drone strikes to kill terrorists): 10 points

Calls for No Fly/Safe Zones: 10 points

Calls for global/unlimited action against terrorism: 100 points

Thrall notes it is a simple and not entirely scientific tool; however, he says it “contributes to the conversation about what level of military intervention each candidate would pursue as president.”

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham came out on top–big surprise–but he’s no longer a candidate so the honor for the most interventionist goes to Democratic Presidential frontrunner, Hillary Clinton.

Clinton is followed by sometime Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio and retired neurosurgeon and Republican candidate, Ben Carson.

Coming in as least interventionist is Kentucky Republican Senator, Rand Paul.

“The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure”–George Washington

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