Noninterventionist

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. An advocate for avoiding involvement in foreign disputes and conflicts is typically characterized as someone who supports a non-intrusive approach to international relations
2. A proponent of a hands-off foreign policy is often defined as someone who avoids engaging in the political or military issues of other countries
3. Someone who subscribes to the principle of abstaining from intervention in the affairs of other nations is generally recognized as a supporter of non-involvement in conflicts

Etymology: "Noninterventionist" is a plain compound: the prefix "non-" ("not") attached to "interventionist," which itself is built from "intervention" plus the agent suffix "-ist," meaning one who practises or supports a policy. "Intervention" goes back to Latin "interventio," from "intervenire," literally "to come between," which is why the core idea of the word is stepping in between parties. The "-ist" suffix, borrowed from Greek through Latin, turns the action into a person or a doctrine, so an interventionist is someone who favours getting involved, and a noninterventionist is its opposite. The word's real work has been in diplomacy, where it names a stance rather than a personality. It is most often used as an adjective describing a government's foreign policy, and the noun describes the person who holds it. Because "intervention" has long been a loaded term in international affairs, the prefix "non-" does a lot of the explaining here, and the pairing of the two words makes the contrast obvious at a glance.

Synonyms: neutralist, isolationist, hands-off, nonaligned, noninvolved

Antonyms: interventionist, interfering, meddlesome, intrusive, active