A Foreign
Policy for Clinton, not Necessarily for Trump
Richard Haass, a person I like (From TV)
and respect has written a very long Foreign
Affairs article on a foreign policy for the United States. It would be very
appropriate for Hillary Clinton, not so much for Donald Trump. After all Haass
is a pillar of the establishment, being president of the Council on Foreign
Relations for the past fourteen years.
He is a student of Henry Kissinger and,
as such, he goes back to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia which represents the
beginnings of the nation state system as we know it. He believes that system
which is based on the non-interference of the internal affairs of a state is
inadequate for the 21st Century. He believes that states have the “sovereign
obligation”, to reign in terrorism, fight drug trafficking, prevent nuclear
proliferation, and deal with climate change. This is a far cry from the
Westphalian System and it necessarily breeds suspicion of the established
powers trying to enforce their codes on smaller states.
He is rightly critical of the Obama
policies in Syria, Libya and Iraq. And in the 1990s he was prescient in
proposing a preventive strike against North Korea’s then nascent nuclear
program. The Clinton Administration failed to hear is warning and we are now
suffering its consequences.
Haass opens his book with the Brexit
vote. However, there is no real follow through. This is a real failure of his
book because in my opinion the foreign policy challenges are not external, but
rather internal. There is a revolt going on against the global elite of which
Haass is an exemplar and I am a mere plebian. It is that revolt that is
reordering foreign policy: witness France, Turkey, Hungary and above all the election
of Donald Trump. Thus as Dr. Kissinger has taught us, in order to be successful
a foreign policy has to have domestic support. I fear Haass’ ideas have yet to
convince the general public. It is here where work has to be done.
For the Amazon URL see:
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