US Foreign Policy: Strategic or Disjointed?
"We [the United States] need to walk and chew gum at the same time."
Those were the words David Shear, Senior Fellow in the Reischauer Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, used to start his remarks during a recent Stimson Center event I attended. I was instantly hooked. Mainly because it's a sentiment I have held for over a decade now. The United States' foreign policy strategy as of late has resembled a game of whack-a-mole. Disjointed and muddled, it's time to re-examine our role on the world stage by looking at where we are and where we need to go.
FOREIGN POLICY DAYS OF YORE
One thing we need to come to terms with is that the era of grand strategies is over. We need to learn how to pick our battles, literally. The US' role as the world's police, solely responsible for maintaining peace and security, is no longer sustainable. Frankly, it never should have been this way in the first place. It would have behooved the US to take on its position as the world's leading superpower with great emphasis on multilateralism, sharing critical responsibilities with allies. However, the US has been more than happy to exercise its hegemonic influence unilaterally on many occasions. Being in such a position has come at a cost, however. As it becomes more challenging to juggle multiple conflicts simultaneously, the gap is widening between the US' ambition and desire to maintain peace and security on its own terms and its ability to do so.
In an era where we are looking to our allies more than ever for assistance in the world's hotspots, the US needs to focus on long-term strategic planning where policy objectives and goals are set and met, regardless of which political party is in power. Domestically, the US needs to get its own house in order. With the rise of living costs, stagnation of wages, and skyrocketing national debt, diverting much-needed resources from home to fund foreign policy initiatives abroad has become wildly unpopular. This is evident with the recent conflicts between Ukraine and Russia as well as Israel's war in Gaza, where the US has funneled billions in military aid to Ukraine and Israel, respectively. Coupled with rising partisanship, the US struggles to create sound policies past party lines.
TIME TO PIVOT
Instead of hegemonic influence, US foreign policy should demonstrate restraint. Policymakers need to be realistic when dealing with other great powers by acknowledging that this isn't the great power competition era of yesteryear and to cast today's foreign policy environment in the same light as that of the Cold War is erroneous at best and irresponsible at worst. Many seasoned policymakers in Washington don't understand that trying to copy and paste Cold War solutions in a post-Cold War world is why we are struggling to understand our adversaries, specifically China and Russia.
While I'm not a policymaker, I do know the US is too overcommitted overseas. Afghanistan and Iraq are very recent examples of how overstretched military commitments can have devastating effects back home. I also know that isolationism isn't the answer either. The US needs to find something somewhere in the middle. Multilateralism will be essential when it comes to the US becoming more agile. With many great powers, unilaterally handling the world's issues is unsustainable and unnecessary. We don't need to be everywhere and anywhere. We just need to be ready. Scaling back where we aren't needed and reserving our resources should be a top priority.
As a country with all its material and intellectual resources, the US shouldn't be focusing all its energy into building up its military while allowing the other tools in its foreign policy toolkit to rust away. The institutions born post-WWIl with our Western allies need to be leveraged more. Many of these institutions, such as the UN, World Bank, IMF, NATO, etc., are only effective if they are leveraged correctly. The US must be willing to give up some decision-making powers if it genuinely wants its allies to share in the bounty and burden that comes with being a world leader. Our presence needs to be felt, but our power needs to be used with restraint. We are more than our military, and we should act accordingly. It's time to return to agile diplomacy.