Donald Trump’s Common Sense, Pro-American Foreign Policy
National security and vital interests are most important.
Any good foreign policy must balance prudence with courage, foresight with urgent need, and preparedness with caution.
These should be key elements of any nation’s diplomacy. But national security and vital interests are most important.
In a major address this week on his administration’s national security strategy, President Trump put these things back on center stage. He described the failures of previous administrations and listed what his has done over the past 11 months.
“Our rivals are tough, they’re tenacious, and committed to the long term,” he noted. “But so are we.”
He continued, “To succeed, we must integrate every dimension of our national strength, and we must compete with every instrument of our national power.”
The Four Pillars
The President then announced “four pillars” of his national security policy:
- “First, we must protect the American people, the homeland, and our great American way of life.” This includes, he said, are the security of our borders and the defeat of Islamic terrorism.
- “The second pillar of our strategy is to promote American prosperity. For the first time, American strategy recognizes that economic security is national security.”
- “The third pillar of our strategy is to preserve peace through strength. We recognize that weakness is the surest path to conflict, and unrivaled power is the most certain means of defense.”
- “Fourth and finally, our strategy is to advance American influence in the world, but this begins with building up our wealth and power at home. America will lead again. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but we will champion the values without apology.” This implies that America will seek to make liberty — religious, political, and economic — a cornerstone of our international efforts. About time.
Two observations:
- Every single one of these pillars should make a patriot’s heart glad. They are commonsensical, overdue, and American to the core.
- Critics of the President and, generally, anything conservative are going crazy over them. That reflects the blindness of his critics, not any problems with the Trump or his foreign policy.
The Critics
Melvyn P. Leffler, writing in Foreign Affairs
, called the President’s strategy “delusional” with a “grim worldview.” The Washington Post intones that it “isn’t much of a strategy at all.” And in Foreign Policy, Salman Ahmed and Jake Sullivan claim that the strategy “raise(s) serious questions about the future of U.S. global leadership.”
Let’s grant American diplomacy needs nuance. Knowing when to push hard and when to speak softly is an art much needed in a complex world. I suspect Mr. Trump knows this. That might come as a shock to his patronizing critics, but given his advisors around him, there should be little doubt the President knows how dangerous our world is.
Something more is going on, though, in the criticisms of the new national security policy. In the view of the Left, America is, if not evil, certainly blundering and militaristic and even imperialistic. It sees mistaken judgments or, worse, sinister motives in virtually everything we do on the world stage.
To those who hold this view, America should be ashamed of its power. We should weaken our armed forces, and hope desperately that everyone likes us.
They are affronted by a President who says borders should be secure. Why secure borders when “the one percent” can well afford to care for the needy streaming in illegally, right?
They are offended by the claim that America is the unique and indispensable nation. Our foundational convictions are not only correct but have never been more fully realized anywhere. For conservatives, these things are givens. For the Left, they are arrogant and scary.
Mr. Trump will never win the favor of those who want a anemic America. They will never understand that strength is not hostility and resolve is not arrogance.
A More Secure Nation
So be it. It’s the duty of conservatives to let the Left carry on while we do the hard work of building an ever more secure nation.
Eight years of hand-wringing by the previous administration is now being jettisoned. America’s enemies should fear us. Our adversaries should respect us. And our friends should know they can depend on us. Donald Trump gets this. And that’s a foreign policy worth the name.