The Atlantic: on Foreign Policy
Beto O`Rourke:
Help refugee asylum seekers at home in Northern Triangle
O'Rourke argued that to solve America's problems at the border, America's leaders must "help people in Central America where they are." In so doing, he began laying a foundation to effectively rebut Donald Trump on his signature issue: immigration.
O'Rourke's competitors are right to demand a fairer & more humane system for evaluating asylum claims. But an improved asylum system won't reduce the number of people fleeing violence in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador--Central America's "Northern
Triangle." To the contrary, the better chance migrants have of gaining asylum, the more likely they are to seek it.
By addressing the roots of the migration problem, O'Rourke's proposal evades Trump's trap. The migrant "caravans" that Trump demonizes
hail from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, where a brutal fight between organized-crime cartels has driven violence to levels that are unprecedented outside a war zone. American aid can reduce this violence and the migration it creates.
Source: The Atlantic Magazine on 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 1, 2019
Donald Trump:
U.S. has become dumping ground for everybody else's problems
While the Trump and Sanders campaigns both represent insurgencies against party elites, they represent insurgencies aimed at taking America in radically different directions. One way of understanding those different directions is through American
exceptionalism. Sanders voters want to make America more like the rest of the world. Trump voters want to keep America a nation apart.American exceptionalism today generally denotes Americans' peculiar faith in God, flag, and free market--the
Sanders campaign represents an assault on all three [while Trump supports all three].
Trump's entire campaign is built around the idea that foreign influences are infecting the United States. "The U.S.," he declared upon announcing his presidential
campaign, "has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems."
Trump's supporters like the fact that he's rich, blunt, and hasn't spent his life in politics. But his pledges to keep the rest of the world at bay are core to his appeal.
Source: The Atlantic magazine, "War Over American Exceptionalism"
Feb 11, 2016
Eric Brakey:
Deposing secular dictators in Mid-East empowers our enemies
Eric Brakey, a member of the 112-person panel tasked with drafting the official Republican Party platform, sought to make part of the platform more simpatico with Donald Trump.Brakey proposed to condemn the Obama administration's intervention in
Libya and blame it for destabilizing the region and empowering the Islamic State. "The deposing of secular dictators in the Middle East empowers our enemies," his text read. "We oppose the continuing of this failed practice."
Defending his views,
Brakey summoned Trump: "Even our presumptive nominee acknowledges that the decision to take out the secular dictator in Iraq was a mistake," he noted. But other delegates said they didn't like the idea of the GOP "defending evil dictators."
That amendment was defeated, as were several other Brakey proposals aimed at turning the party in a less interventionist direction. Delegates declined to soften the party's stance toward Russia, or to categorically condemn foreign aid.
Source: The Atlantic magazine on 2018 Maine Senate race
Jul 14, 2016
Jon Huntsman:
Notion of national decline is "un-American"
When great powers begin to experience erosion in their global standing, their leaders inevitably strike a pose of denial. We are seeing a similar phenomenon today in America, where the topic of decline stirs discomfort in national leaders.
Mitt Romney stated flatly that he "rejects the philosophy of decline in all of its variants." And former U.S. ambassador to China and one-time GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman pronounced decline to be simply "un-American."
Source: The Atlantic magazine on 2020 Utah Governor race
Apr 1, 2012
Josh Mandel:
Leave Iraq & Afghanistan strategically, without date certain
"I agree with President Obama that in Iraq and Afghanistan, at some point in time, we have to take the training wheels off and we have to allow those countries to stand on their own two feet," he says. "At the same time,
I respectfully disagree with President Obama at the way he's conducted the pullout from Iraq and the way he's established dates certain for pullouts in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Source: Molly Ball in The Atlantic, "The Next Marco Rubio"
Mar 5, 2012
Mike Pompeo:
Prevented G7 statement by insisting on using "Wuhan virus"
Members of the G7--the U.S. and its six closest allies--did meet to write a joint statement. But even that tepid project ended in ludicrous rancor when the American secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, insisted on using the expression "Wuhan virus"
and the others gave up in disgust. Not only is the president talking nonsense, not only is America absent, but the nation's top diplomat is a caricature of a tough guy--someone who throws around insults in the absence of any capacity to influence events.
Source: The Atlantic magazine on Trump Cabinet
May 3, 2020
Mitt Romney:
Reject philosophy of national decline in all of its variants
When great powers begin to experience erosion in their global standing, their leaders inevitably strike a pose of denial. We are seeing a similar phenomenon today in America, where the topic of decline stirs discomfort in national leaders.
Mitt Romney stated flatly that he "rejects the philosophy of decline in all of its variants." And former U.S. ambassador to China and one-time GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman pronounced decline to be simply "un-American."
Source: The Atlantic magazine on 2018 Utah Senate race
Apr 1, 2012
Rick Perry:
Hasn't called for defense cuts; hasn't endorsed Bush's wars
Texas Governor Rick Perry quietly traveled to Europe last week to assert his foreign-policy credentials. The speeches Perry prepared for his trip to Europe announced Perry's entry into the 2016 presidential contest as a national-security stalwart--an
alternative to the neo-isolationist approach championed by Senator Rand Paul.Unlike many Washington-based competitors for the foreign-policy-hawk vote, Perry has not left any fingerprints on the budget plans that are cutting the Army and
Marines to their smallest size since 1940. Senator Marco Rubio can credibly say that he opposed the defense cuts all along, but Ted Cruz has championed even bigger spending cuts that would inevitably impinge on defense spending.
Furthermore, Perry can assert distance from the unpopular pieces of the George W. Bush foreign-policy legacy by virtue of his own famously adversarial relationship with Bush and his Texas team.
Source: The Atlantic 2014 coverage of 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 20, 2014
Rick Perry:
Tolerating vicious ideas is weakness: condemn ISIS & Putin
On a trip to London, Perry took an important step toward establishing his national-security bona fides. The governor championed an assertive American foreign policy against ISIS in the Middle East and Vladimir Putin in Eastern Europe, while calling
European governments to account for their weak response to anti-Semitic attacks. "Forbearance in the face of vicious ideas and conduct is not tolerance. It is weakness," he told his audience."To every extremist:
We will not allow you to exploit our tolerance, so that you can import your intolerance. We will not let you destroy our peace with your violent ideas. If you expect to live among us, and yet plan against us, to receive the protections and comforts of a
free society, while showing none of its virtues or graces, then you can have our answer now: 'No, not on our watch!' You will live by exactly the standards that the rest of us live by. And if that comes as jarring news: Then welcome to civilization."
Source: The Atlantic 2014 coverage of 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 20, 2014
Rick Perry:
Warsaw Pact failed & NATO survived: we keep our commitments
In his prepared speech for Warsaw, Perry focused on the challenge from Vladimir Putin and a revanchist Russia, adding his own personal view about the force destabilizing Eastern Europe:"The president of Russia, Mr. Putin, may regard treaty obligations
as so many words on paper, and just as easily tossed aside. But we operate a little differently in the NATO counties: We actually keep our commitments. That helps explain why, after nearly 70 years, there is still a NATO while the Iron Curtain,
Eastern Bloc, and Warsaw Pact all belong to a miserable history we were all glad to put behind us. As before in history, holding to our NATO obligations can mean the difference between threats invited and threats deterred. Worse troubles are always
avoided when we stick together as the inseparable allies that we are and offer more than consoling words to friends like Ukraine. Hostile actors need to know that in every circumstance we defend our interests and keep our word."
Source: The Atlantic 2014 coverage of 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 20, 2014
Tulsi Gabbard:
U.S. should focus on fighting terrorism, not regime change
Gabbard has long advocated that the U.S. should focus its efforts in Syria on Islamist groups instead of ousting Assad. She introduced legislation that would bar the U.S. government from supporting groups allied with or supporting terrorist
organizations, some of which are fighting against the Assad regime. Her views on Syria appear to align more closely with those of President Trump, who says the U.S. should focus its efforts on defeating ISIS.
Source: The Atlantic, "Gabbard to Syria": 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jan 31, 2017
Page last updated: Jul 21, 2024