3 Foreign Policy Options for America

Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, has written an excellent book entitled Superpower: Three Choices for America’s Role in the World, in which he argues that American foreign policy for the last several decades has been reactive, not driven by a coherent vision. He proposes that we need desperately to have a rational national debate about which of three possible roles we want America to take in the future.

A recent online article in The World Post, 3 American Foreign Policy Options That 2016 Presidential Candidates Need to Choose Among, does a good job of summarizing the alternatives, and is well worth reading.  In the book, Brenner gives each of the alternatives its best and strongest argument, summarized as follows in the article:

Independent America

Instead of squandering lives and resources on poorly planned foreign policy adventures, it's time for Washington to mind its own business, and let other countries accept greater responsibility for their own security and prosperity. Rebuild this nation's strength from within. Invest the billions we've squandered abroad in American education, innovation and crumbling infrastructure. Take much better care of our veterans, the men and women who have paid the highest price for our post-Cold War superhero foreign policy. Leave more dollars in the taxpayer's pocket to power the American economy forward.

Moneyball America

If the U.S. is to remain secure and prosperous, there are a few foreign challenges that must be met, and it's in America's interests for Americans to meet them. We can't afford to intervene in so many trouble spots at once, but nor can we retreat and expect others to pick up the slack. Focus less on selling American values and more on enhancing America's value. Stop treating the rest of the world as if they are "Americans at an earlier stage of development." Set aside pointless arguments about how "exceptional" we are, and build a foreign policy designed solely to make America more secure and more prosperous. Mind the cost. Set priorities and stick to them.

Indispensable America

In a profoundly interconnected and dangerous world, America can't remain safe unless we work to ensure that governments everywhere answer to their citizens. Americans must fight for democracy, rule of law, human rights and open markets because the world -- and therefore the U.S. -- will never know sustainable security and prosperity without them. Someone must lead the alliances that manage conflict, prevent terrorists from gaining access to the world's most dangerous weapons, contain threats in cyberspace and lead the fight against transnational crime and the worst effects of climate change. Who but America can do these things? Who but America can lead?

Bremmer himself reserves his own opinions until the last chapter of his book, where he argues  for the Independent America approach.

I think he is right, we in America need to decide which of these courses we want our political leaders to follow. And I guess I agree with his own conclusion, spelled out in the last chapter of the book – that we need to tend first and foremost to our own internal difficulties – crumbling infrastructure, decaying inner cities, exorbitant higher education costs, substandard early education, growing income inequality, etc, etc, etc. We have wasted a lot of lives and money in recent decades trying to remake the world in our image, and frankly it hasn’t worked very well.

This is not an argument for American isolationism, but rather for a more realistic assessment of what we can and can’t do in the world, and how much other nations have to take responsibility for their own problems in their own areas of the world.