republican party
America does not have a regional problem, it has a national one. It is less about which statues stay up in the South than which prejudices fall nationwide. And that will, in turn, determine how we deserve to be seen in the world.
Mark Dillen asks how the Charlottesville protests "will affect the way the world sees us — and the way we see ourselves."
Recent comments by Donald Trump in the New York Times should and will frighten Americans and our allies around the world. In response to questions about the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) the Republican nominee suggested that he would abandon our friends and fail to protect our allies if they didn’t pay a high enough price.
Donald Trump said Mexican leaders were outsmarting their American counterparts by shipping the country’s criminals over the border. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said beating the Islamic State depended on first defeating President Barack Obama’s Iran deal. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz accused the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of speaking “nonsense.”
The reaction of some hawks on the right to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s filibuster suggests a refusal to recognize why Paul was so successful in garnering praise. They are seemingly unable to recognize the deeply held perception of many, if not most, of the American people that Iraq and Afghanistan were unsuccessful and that enthusiasm for the Arab Spring is misplaced.
With exit polls showing that the country trusted him more to conduct U.S. foreign policy than his rival, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama set off a round of commentary about how the GOP could regain its advantage. His nominee for defense secretary, moderate Republican Chuck Hagel, has re-energized that debate [disclosure: Hagel is chairman of the Atlantic Council, the author's employer].
That doctrine relies on downplaying "hard" power capabilities and relying more on "outsourcing" U.S. security concerns to international institutions like the United Nations, negotiating with military competitors (think: the New START nuclear agreement with Russia) and embracing "soft" power initiatives (think: diplomatic "engagement" with Iran).
Take Mitt Romney's 59-point plan to rebuild America, which contains a set of foreign policy principles.. [including] enhanced "soft power" to bolster American influence around the world and steadfast alliances in Europe and the Middle East.