The World Needs America More Than Ever

But some Republicans want to retreat

There was a time when U.S. foreign policy was relatively predictable. Republican and Democratic presidents varied on the margins, but our Cold War with world communism kept us focused on deterrence through strength and strategic alliances. Then the Berlin Wall fell, and we were blessed, and burdened, with sole superpower status.

For more than two decades we used our unrivaled power to stabilize much of the world.  But Hamas’s ongoing attack on Israel  -- that country’s 9/11 -- signals a contextual challenge. From Ukraine to Israel to Yemen and beyond, our diplomats and our military are being stretched thin. Two countries once thought to pose little threat are now major rivals and chaos is the new normal.

With Russia aligned with Hamas’s primary backer Iran, and prosecuting an unprovoked and brutal war against Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is disrupting the old status quo. (He has also intervened militarily in Syria and half a dozen African nations.) In the meantime, China has built the third most powerful military in the world (after the U.S. and Russia) and is flexing its muscles by building military outposts in disputed waters across the South China Sea.  China has built a naval base in Djibouti and invested in port facilities in Mauritania, Sierra Leone, and in the Caribbean in Antigua and Barbuda. These could be readily converted to military use.   

Our best response to China, Russia, and the general chaos needs to move on two tracks. Militarily, we still dwarf other states. This means, for example, that we can (and should) provide substantial and essential aid to Ukraine, Israel, and other friends in need.  On the second track, we must improve our ties and coordination with allies around the world. We must strengthen these relationships so that others will join us when asked.

Although much of the world has rallied around Ukraine (as it will rally around Israel) others, including our major ally South Korea, have remained on the sidelines. This tells me that in too many cases our friendships are not as robust as they should be. One big reason for this problem has been our inconsistent policy.  President Obama, for example, failed to offer a strong response to Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory in 2014 and responded with similar weakness when Russian-backed forces in Syria crossed his “red line” and gassed civilians. After Obama, Donald Trump did nothing in response to Russia’s attack on the 2016 election and took a sledgehammer to our relationships with our allies and to the State Department budget.       

Well before he was elected, Trump whined about the expense of maintaining NATO and questioned its values. After his election, he began singling out individual countries – Australia, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, and many others – spreading doubts about America’s global leadership and sowing both worry and resentment in friendly capitals. Trump also slashed the State Department’s budget and degraded diplomats’ morale by assigning an advisor to monitor who was loyal to him and who was not.

Trump’s attacks on allies and his treatment of the State Department reflected his xenophobic, America First approach to world affairs.  In ignoring the huge economic benefits that come to the U.S. as it leads the global push for peace and stability, Trump legitimized the idea that America could choose to go it alone. The effect of this isolationism was seen in a 2022 poll that found that only 30 percent of Republicans agreed that “It is best for the future of our country to be active in world affairs. Twice as many approved the statement – “We should pay less attention to problems overseas and concentrate on problems here at home.”  (So much for the GOP example set by Ronald Reagan’s robust and powerful leadership abroad.)    

Although President Biden has reassured allies who were concerned about America’s commitments and he is gradually restoring the State Department budget, I don’t see much evidence that he has developed a strategy to address the chaos and confusion that predominate in world affairs today. This should worry everyone, including leaders in Israel and Ukraine, and especially those of us who still regard America as the world’s indispensable nation and believe we can and should still lead no matter the circumstances.