{UAH} TRUMP'S FOREIGN POLICY IS ONLY GOING TO GET BETTER

Trump's foreign policy will only get better as the right advisers and ambassadors get in place

by Rachel Bovard

 

September 30, 2020 12:00 AM

If there is one thing Washington elites agree on, it is that they are very good at conducting foreign policy. They see themselves as the “grown-ups” on these most grown-up of questions — diplomacy, war and peace, grand strategy. The current generation inherits a legacy handed down by giants such as George Marshall, Henry Kissinger, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and James Baker.

Unfortunately, in the decades since those leaders fought and won the Cold War, their successors running American foreign policy have mostly made a hash of it. Under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, the United States stumbled into more than a dozen wars, winning decisive victories in none of them. The United Nations is no longer a ship of global diplomacy, but an albatross impeding it — known more for its corruption, anti-Semitism, and anti-Americanism than any obvious successes. NATO, organized to contain Soviet communism, still lacks a clear mission 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Neither soft power nor hard power, neither unilateralism or multilateralism, neither our adventures in the Middle East nor our long-promised “pivot” to Asia, have accomplished their stated missions.

No conflict epitomizes the failure of Washington’s foreign policy elite than our 19-year engagement in Afghanistan. Launched in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, “Operation Enduring Freedom” has outlived Osama bin Laden, his terror network, the Taliban regime in Kabul, and two presidential administrations — although President Trump seems committed to ending it.

Though it is largely lost in all of the furious and crisis-making news coverage, Trump ran for president as the most substantive critic of Washington’s foreign policy establishment since the end of the Cold War. He called out mistakes by presidents of both parties. He called for an end of our “forever wars.” He specifically laid out an “America First” foreign policy that prioritized our own interests over those of esoteric conglomerations, such as the U.N. and the European Union.

The foreign policy establishment screamed when Trump scolded NATO allies for not doing enough to defend Europe, when he showed strength by refusing to escalate after Iran shot down a U.S. drone, and again when he delivered on his promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. They scoffed at his efforts to broker peace between the Jewish state and their Arab neighbors. Yet, this straight-talking diplomacy led to new treaties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

He is not an ordinary politician, no. But Trump is by leaps and bounds the most successful foreign policy president in a generation. And indeed, he would be even more successful on this front if he had not been opposed by his own advisers for the last three and a half years.

Much has been made of the rapid turnstile of Trump foreign policy advisers. That’s because so many senior personnel have been more enamored of their bipartisan clique than they are of serving the president’s "America First" agenda. Finally, that is changing.

Trump has nominated Navy intelligence veteran William Ruger to be the new ambassador to Afghanistan. Unlike so many of the president’s first-term foreign policy appointees, Ruger genuinely shares Trump’s desire to responsibly end America’s longest war — a view shared by 70% of people in the U.S. He has used his firsthand knowledge of our Middle Eastern conflicts to defend Trump’s efforts to scale back our military presence in the region.

He’s a realist who supports a strong military used more judiciously to defend vital U.S. interests. Ruger believes that social engineering doesn’t work when Washington policymakers try to impose their values on the American public, nor when they try to impose those values on other countries.

Meanwhile, Trump has nominated retired Army Col. Douglas McGregor to be our new ambassador to Germany. McGregor, like Ruger, is a foreign policy realist who would put Trump’s "America First" agenda into action. He would not thwart the president, but amplify him, and deliver his burden-sharing message to the European powers who much prefer the broken bipartisan consensus and buck-passing their obligations onto U.S. taxpayers and service members.

As he nears the end of his first term, Trump has not only defeated, but also discredited the Washington bipartisan foreign policy consensus with a string of historic successes against their advice. Now that he has found senior advisers who actually agree with his foreign policy, a second term for Trump could see more realistic foreign policies resulting in a stronger America.

Rachel Bovard is the senior director of policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute and a fellow at Defense Priorities.

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