6 Issues That Should Dominate Trump’s Foreign Policy Agenda

The American people elected Donald Trump to exact conservative change here at home, thus his focus on his domestic agenda.

But when the focus does turn to foreign policy, he and the GOP also need to show that they heard the voters! President Obama’s election demonstrated voters’ disgust for adventures abroad. Similarly, President-elect Trump’s indicated that voters do not want to see the United States kicked around.

Here are some priorities to help the new administration color inside voters’ lines:

1. Radical Islam, radical Islam, radical Islam

Fighting that insipid ideology is Trump’s lodestar. When Tip O’Neill coined the phrase “all politics is local” he did not have in mind Islamists in Orlando, but that does not mean it does not apply.

2. The South China Sea.

President Obama delegated our security interests there to the UN. The result should be no mystery. Rebuilding our standing will require steadfast leadership, more than just economic threats, and new alliances, not just a show of force. Doing just the latter will bring out China’s fishing boat navy. Voters will not tolerate shooting them; nor will they accept our Navy being run off … so the new administration must avoid policies that present that binary choice.

Reversing China’s eight-year shopping spree will take time, so Trump should set expectations accordingly.

3. Iran.

Trump must rebuild our regional containment system. Wrecking Obama’s naive nuclear deal is not enough. That means reconstituting our regional alliances, undermining Iran’s radical Islamic ideology, ripping out Hezbollah root and branch around the globe, and learning to love Iraq (the invasion and regime change happened almost 14 years ago in our rearview mirror. We must stop treating it as untouchable).

4. Spread the pain.

President George W. Bush launched the multilateral Six-Party Talks in 2003 in response to North Korea’s bad behavior. This diplomatic exploratory surgery gifted North Korea a large stage on which to act out. Importantly, it also meant the U.S. owned the issue, giving countries like China and Russia leverage over us.

When North Korea acts up again, ask first how to get it off the U.S. docket. Convincing China to own the response is smart statecraft, and sounds like a negotiation worthy of Donald Trump.

Likewise, allies can provide in-kind burden sharing. For example, with American support, the Balts, Georgia, Ukraine, etc., can keep Putin busy.

Trump must keep this in mind as the multitude of rogue states vies for his attention. Already, Russia, a country that should be in our peripheral vision, inspires a national freak-out.

5. Israel.

Do not just stymie immoral UN behavior; bring the pain to Turtle Bay. Of course, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. And, for the love of God, the Oslo Process, ongoing since 1993 (actually, since the 1979 Camp David Accords), will never — never —work. Settlements do not prevent peace.

Palestinian Islamic extremism does. Target Iran’s sponsorship of groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Push for Arab recognition of Israel. Help alleviate our ally’s existential security threats. Only then can peace happen.

6. Reform our sclerotic national security structure.

Create a credible diplomatic option so that our statecraft choices go beyond shooting, sharply worded demarches, and sanctions. It will make the above possible.

Fix our broken State Department. Create a political warfare capability. Get our intelligence community out of the business of running its own military so it can back to doing what it does best: spying.

Successfully tackling this impossibly long list will require that the government relearn what used to be part of our statecraft muscle memory: applying leverage. Diplomacy is not about negotiations. It is about presenting other countries with choices and then using leverage so that they make the decisions we want.

Success also requires that American foreign policy once again reflects American exceptionalism. Americans value not just where we live but how. That has practical implications. For example, most of our allies reflect our values, and our values are non-negotiable.

Defense of our values requires a muscular internationalism. That does not imply the active use of the military. Ronald Reagan never invaded a country larger than Grenada, and he protected our values just fine. But simply drawing inward like Obama leaves our values and allies vulnerable. Ask Israel.

Conservatives need the Trump administration to succeed at the list I outlined. Voters elected him to fulfill fundamental, conservative goals (which the above are), and they gave the GOP both houses of Congress to help.

The GOP has not had conservative foreign policy since the 1980s. On top of that, throw decades lazy post-Cold War strategic thinking and the fact that Obama did not focus on any of these goals (constructively). Moreover, we have never tried to combat radical Islam, and it has been a threat since 1979. Conservatives have a UUGE task ahead of them. I hope they understand that. (For more from the author of “6 Issues That Should Dominate Trump’s Foreign Policy Agenda” please click HERE)

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