An American Political Agenda for 2018 and 2020: Six Suggestions for the Upcoming Election Cycles: Part 4

In putting forth an agenda for the 2018 and 2020 elections (read Part 3 here), we’ve focused on domestic matters – restoring the dignity of the Presidency, ending Trump’s harsh, divisive race and ethnicity baiting, and addressing income inequality.  We’ll get back to domestic concerns but, for now, we turn to foreign policy, Trump’s failing that potentially poses the gravest danger.  His shortcomings in this arena could get the country into a war. 

Pointing out Trump’s foreign policy flaws isn’t difficult.  His Secretary of State did, after all, reportedly call him a “moron.”  Trump has estranged the United States from many of its European and Asian allies with bellicose rhetoric, threats to withdraw American support from those allies, and general uncertainty about our intentions on long settled questions.  Many countries now doubt they can count on American military and economic assistance.  Trump has sent mixed signals about his support for U.S. treaty commitments and whether he adheres to basic premises undergirding American policy since World War II.  Most of all, Trump’s flirtation with Vladimir Putin’s Russia gives European countries heartburn and needlessly raises international tensions.  That flirtation encourages these nations to doubt where we stand in the battle of ideas between authoritarian Russia and Western democratic ideals.  We hope any candidate seeking office in 2018 or 2020 will advance a foreign policy agenda that includes three basic policy imperatives and commits to addressing foreign affairs in a language recognizing the complexity of the enterprise and that eschews simplistic nationalism.  We didn’t even mention North Korea.   

Allied Commitments   
No doubt should ever exist about the American commitment to NATO, our other treaty obligations, and bilateral mutual defense pacts we have with various nations.  If the country wants to debate continuing those agreements as matters of policy or economic imperative, fine.  That’s why we have a Congress.  But as long as those obligations remain in place, the American President must support them.  Throwing out threats to eliminate or reduce U.S. support for this or that country or this or that treaty serves no one except our enemies.  Already, nations like Japan and South Korea have started thinking they should acquire nuclear weapons because they doubt the United States will protect them.  Those agreements helped stem nuclear proliferation.  Backing off from them makes such proliferation more likely and further destabilizes an already dangerous world.

Restore the State Department   
In the post war era, American foreign policy has depended on a strong military consisting of conventional and nuclear arsenals and an expertise-based diplomatic corps.  Our State Department has served the nation well, staffed as it has been by distinguished secretaries (from General George C. Marshall, through Henry Kissinger and James Baker, to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry) and their deputies, as well as career foreign policy professionals who understand the cultural, political, and economic terrain of the countries to which they’re assigned.  Trump and his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, are in the process of tearing that down.  They’ve left countless political positions unfilled and demoralized many career people, some of whom have left.

Revitalizing American foreign policy requires restoring the State Department.  First, the White House must rebuild trust with career foreign service professionals and candidates should make an explicit promise to do so as part of a foreign policy reset.  Second, we urge anyone running for President to pledge to scour the think tanks, international law firms, universities, and the journalistic community to fill the political slots with smart, thoughtful, competent deputy secretaries and under secretaries who can resume the American diplomatic role in the world.  This may seem like “inside baseball” no one except political junkies cares about, but the Trump-Tillerson strip down of the State Department has done America serious harm by robbing the nation of an experienced, expert diplomatic corps that can talk to the rest of the world in its cultural, political, and economic languages.  The voters need to know the next President will tackle this problem. 

Repair our Relationship with Mexico   
Mexico is our third largest trading partner, behind only China and Canada.  It accounts for about 16% of our exports and over 13% of our imports.  With his ridiculous proposal to build a border wall – and suggest Mexico pay for it – Trump alienated the Mexican government and damaged the U.S. relationship with the Mexican people.  The next President and the next Congress need a different approach to Mexico.  Despite the immigration issue that so agitates Trump’s base, Mexico stands as a critical trading partner we should cultivate and with which we should maintain a respectful relationship based on mutual and shared interests, not hostility stemming from biases and ethnic distrust.

We could talk about a lot more – a saner approach to North Korea, assigning someone to work on mid-east peace with more foreign policy gravitas than the President’s 36-year old son-in-law, climate change as part of the foreign policy-national security matrix – the list extends on and on.  We’ve focused on things that go to the root causes of our foreign policy challenges – language, relationships, alliances, and governmental infrastructure.  Solve some of these problems and many of the others will take care of themselves.  Isn’t that the task we really face?