Amy Klobuchar in Council on Foreign Relations

On Foreign Policy: Transition Heartland from isolationism to Internationalism

Several years ago David Ignatius of the Washington Post once wrote a column titled "The Internationalism of the Heartland." And in it, he wrote about how some of the defining voices of global commitment over the past half-century have come from America's middle. And by that, he just didn't mean people in the middle of the political spectrum. He meant people in the middle of the country.

And I actually have given speeches at home about my own state's transition from isolationism. When Ignatius interviewed me for that column, I told him that as a senator from the Midwest that I believed that we needed to embrace rather than tolerate internationalism. He summarized my comments by saying that after a difficult decade the United States needs a refreshed internationalism that recognizes its stake in the world, even as it avoids costly military commitments where possible. He called this approach internationalism of the heartland. And I think it is more important now more than ever.

Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2019 Democratic primary Dec 11, 2019

On Foreign Policy: Five Rs: restore, repair, rejoin, respond, and reassert

Today I want to talk about five steps we can take to address the challenges facing our country. They are simply called the five Rs: restoring American leadership, repairing our alliances, rejoining international agreements, responding appropriately to the threats and challenges that come before us, and reasserting American values--restoring, repairing, rejoining, responding, and reasserting.

So we'll start with restoring American leadership. We have to send a clear message that America is once again a global power of good. Trust from our allies that we will stand with them is key, and trust from our adversaries that we will oppose them and defeat them.

In my first one hundred days as president, I will launch an effort to rebuild and restore our diplomatic corps. That begins with immediately depoliticizing foreign policymaking and ensuring that the State Department and international agencies receive sufficient funding. We will recruit a new generation of Foreign Service officers.

Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2019 Democratic primary Dec 11, 2019

On Foreign Policy: Beware China's Uighur internment camps & Hong Kong crackdown

We only have to look at China's detention of over one million Uighurs in internment camps or its attempts to crack down on democratic protesters in Hong Kong to see how far that country will go. And it has been playing by its own trade rules for years, stealing our cutting-edge technologies and intellectual property, and dumping steel. It weaponizes its economy against its neighbors by withholding key exports to try to extract political concessions, and it is pouring money into a military modernization program specifically designed to keep America at a distance and intimidate its neighbors. It's trying to embed itself in our most sensitive infrastructure through internet firms which we know have strong ties to the Chinese government.

If you're China and looking at us right now, you see a president that doesn't keep his decisions seven minutes from now. He has used a meat cleaver--or, should I say, a tweet cleaver--and is creating chaos with his erratic approach.

Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2019 Democratic primary Dec 11, 2019

The above quotations are from Council on Foreign Relations. Click here for other excerpts from Council on Foreign Relations. Click here for other excerpts by Amy Klobuchar. Click here for a profile of Amy Klobuchar.
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