This weekend, Americans around the country celebrated 250 years since the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. “250 years of freedom” was the rallying cry for a great many of these events. And while freedom should well be prioritized in the celebration of America’s birth, freedom itself was not created spontaneously by the Declaration. We are born free. What the Declaration gave us, then, was something different, and often underappreciated: sovereignty.

There are, of course, many aspects to sovereignty, including territorial defense. But while our Founders did not invent the concept of sovereignty, they did reconceptualize it in a way that altered the course of history: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” While a radical innovation at the time, this formulation of sovereignty—as based in the will of the people—would not be radical much longer. Less than 200 years later, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, affirming “the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government” and reminding the world that sovereignty is a principle belonging not to the state but to the people.

Over the years, this interpretation of sovereignty has often been minimized or even lost. President Trump’s critics use sovereignty as a sword against him, arguing the arrest of indicted narcoterrorist Nicolas Maduro violated Venezuela’s sovereignty and that any efforts to oust the current regime in Cuba would be a similar violation. In effect, these critics have turned “sovereignty” into as a get out of jail free card for dictators instead of what it actually is: a rallying cry for the public. Supporting the Cuban people would be entirely consistent with the original American understanding of sovereignty, as well as a reminder of our own history. Much like the Cuban people today, 250 years ago we were a small group of dissidents fighting for our freedom against a much larger power that had dominated us for generations. Had it not been for considerable support from France, the fledgling American republic would have almost certainly failed in our attempt to secure our sovereignty. And thanks to that support, we celebrated 250 years of independence, freedom, and sovereignty this past week. The United States now has an opportunity to pay that forward. 

This does not mean the United States should utilize a kinetic option in Cuba. I have spoken about my reservations regarding such a policy in the past. However, the United States should robustly support the Cuban people as they fight for their birthright of freedom using the many other options available, including maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on the Cuban regime. Doing so is not a rejection of sovereignty or international principles; rather, it is a fulfillment of them.