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NEW YORK (AP) Sen. Rand Paul is taking on critics who brand him an isolationist on foreign policy, advocating an approach for America that "recognizes our limits and preserves our might."

The libertarian-leaning Republican, a possible White House contender in 2016, is setting out the limits he sees for U.S. involvement in military conflicts.

"America shouldn't fight wars where the best outcome is stalemate. America shouldn't fight wars when there is no plan for victory," he says in a speech scheduled for Thursday night at the Center for the National Interest. "America should and will fight wars when the consequences intended and unintended are worth the sacrifice."

"A precondition to the use of force must be a clear end goal. We can't have perpetual war," according to his prepared remarks, obtained by The Associated Press.

Paul has drawn sharp criticism from within his own party for favoring a smaller American footprint on the international stage. The first-term Kentucky senator has called for the end of all foreign aid and the closure of U.S. military bases abroad.

Similar positions helped sink the presidential ambitions of his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul. That's a fate the younger Paul is working hard to avoid. Polling suggests that a war-weary American public might respond well to Paul's reframing, even if his positions concern some of the Republican Party's most powerful donors and opinion leaders.

Over the past year, the senator has courted foreign policy leaders across the political spectrum. In Thursday's speech, he was trying to distance himself further from the isolationist label, staking out a stand of "conservative realism."

"The war on terror is not over, and America cannot disengage from the world," Paul said. "We need a foreign policy that recognizes our limits and preserves our might, a common-sense conservative realism of strength and action."

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Original headline: and Paul tries to peel away isolationist label

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Rand Paul Wants to Shed Isolationist Label

Rand Paul, whose foreign policy views have become a frequent target of his GOP critics, will use a high-profile speech in New York on Thursday to urge the United States to exercise restraint when engaging in wars overseas.

At a dinner hosted by the Center for the National Interest, the libertarian-minded Kentucky senator, a potential White House contender in 2016, will argue for limits on U.S. engagement in military conflicts. Its a view that runs counter to the hawks among his fellow Republicans who have called for a more aggressive American presence in hot spots in the Middle East.

America shouldnt fight wars where the best outcome is stalemate, Paul plans to say, according to excerpts provided by his office. America shouldnt fight wars when there is no plan for victory. America shouldnt fight wars that arent authorized by the American people, by Congress. America should and will fight wars when the consequences intended and unintended are worth the sacrifice.

(Also on POLITICO: The GOP's 2016 tech deficit)

Paul plans to add: After the tragedies of Iraq and Libya, Americans are right to expect more from their country when we go to war.

Paul aides say the speech will be the first time the freshman senator fully spells out his conservative realist foreign policy, outlining how he views international trade, diplomacy and the national debt as it relates to national security.

The speech also comes as Paul has faced criticism from potential rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, some of whom accuse him of harboring views of isolationism and see his national security views as his biggest liability.

(Also on POLITICO: Rand, Ron Paul split over travel ban)

In a July op-ed in The Washington Post, for instance, Texas Gov. Rick Perry called Paul curiously blind to the threat posed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants. Paul responded in a POLITICO op-ed, writing that apparently [Perrys] new glasses havent altered his perception of the world, or allowed him to see it any more clearly.

The lets-intervene-and-consider-the-consequences-later crowd left us with more than 4,000 Americans dead, over 2 million refugees and trillions of dollars in debt, Paul wrote at the time.

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Paul to lay out foreign policy vision

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