In After the Neocons he tries to do so.
He is at pains, above all, to stop the Iraq disaster leading to the conclusion that the internal affairs of other countries are never, militarily speaking, the West's business.
His approach "still takes humanitarian intervention seriously as an alternative for a place like Darfur," he says. "Not exclusively, not stupidly -- but because you do care about how governments treat their citizens."
Hatred of the UN has blinded the American right to the role of international institutions, he says, though in his ideal world the weak and corrupt UN wouldn't take the leading role.
He is frustratingly vague on detail.
"This is what I tell my students all the time: we do not have a good set of international institutions to deal with a lot of emerging problems. And it's up to their generation to figure out what these are going to be," he says.
In this Fukuyama reflects the paucity of ideas in Washington: a static, pessimistic vagueness on all sides, as if everyone is waiting for a compelling vision for US foreign policy.
Fukuyama edges toward one, but just when you find yourself longing for him to come up with a punchy new "end of history" the cautious professor takes over. ("Realistic Wilsonianism" is the mouthful of a term he gives to his approach.)
Fukuyama voted for Senator John Kerry in 2004, but he doesn't think the likely candidates today have much to offer on foreign policy.
So Washington waits for inspiration; Iraq spirals towards implosion; and former advocates of war keep themselves sane by avoiding the subject.
"On the whole, I'd say I'm still friends [with many neocons]," Fukuyama says. "We manage this situation by not talking about Iraq."
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