This marks the last week of curated grand strategy content before the American presidential election. Accordingly, we have curated material that best reflects the grand strategy implications of a victory either for Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Although foreign policy has not featured heavily as a campaign issue, Hunter DeRensis argues that restraint-oriented voters could make a decisive difference in Pennsylvania. For readers interested in the case for Donald Trump as the best choice to carry the mantle of foreign policy restraint, Doug Bandow's piece has much to offer. Barbara Boland reinforces Bandow's assessment in her analysis of a President Biden's likely cabinet picks. Dan McCarthy has his own worthy take on Biden's tendencies toward interventionism and Rachel Espin Odell makes the counter-intuitive case that Biden would in fact continue a hawkish course in relation to China. For a persuasive case that Biden is, in fact, the better restraint-oriented candidate, readers will benefit from Steve Chapman's fine article. Of course, the optimal candidate must be judged not just on promises but on a willingness and ability to carry through with those promises. Bonnie Kristian points out that troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is in every dimension the best policy and that Trump should follow through on his pledge to make it happen. Finally, regardless of the outcome, the next president must have a sober sense of exactly what the geopolitical priorities are and where threats to the United States are coming from. Ted Galen Carpenter makes the important case that, for all of the talk about the Middle East and China, the United States should be more attentive to managing stability in its immediate region in its bordering Mexico. Original Posts Adam Weinstein, RealClearPublicAffairs For two decades, the United States has applied a failed “AfPak” strategy to South Asia which prioritizes the conflict in Afghanistan at the expense of all other U.S. interests in the... Essential Reading Mike Sweeney, Defense Priorities Bottom line: NATO membership for Ukraine is an impossibility. Therefore, the U.S. and Allied nations should halt their support for its inclusion in the alliance, reducing tensions wi... In the News Jessica Lee, Responsible Statecraft Hunter DeRensis, RealClearDefense A. Trevor Thrall & Jordan Cohen, Inkstick Doug Bandow, American Conservative Sari Bashi, Responsible Statecraft Ted Galen Carpenter, American Conservative Bonnie Kristian, National Interest William Hartung, Forbes Doug Bandow, Antiwar.com Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Responsible Statecraft Joaquin Castro, Foreign Affairs Barbara Boland, American Conservative Willis Krumholz, Defense News Bonnie Kristian, Business Insider Thomas Meaney, London Review of Books Net Assessment Bryan McGrath rejoins the Net Assessment team to discuss the U.S. Navy’s Battle Force 2045 proposal. Bryan, Melanie, Chris, and Zack agree that the proposed 500 ship force is a fantasy that will not be fully funded. But they express optimism that these plans will provide useful starting points for deeper thinking about the Navy’s future force. Press the Button Stephen Wertheim joins the podcast for an in-depth analysis of the decades-long consensus around US global military dominance, and how views on American primacy are changing among the public and politicians. Lawfare Podcast Jack Goldsmith sat down with Stephen Wertheim. They discussed the surprising World War II origins of U.S. hegemonic militarism, the changes in what it meant to be an internationalist during this period and the domestic political origins of the U.S. embrace of the UN Charter. They also discussed the relationship between Wertheim's book and his work for the Quincy Institute, a think tank devoted to fostering U.S. military restraint. Empire Has No Clothes Matt, Kelley, and Daniel speak to TAC foreign policy reporter Barbara Boland. She breaks down the upcoming election and the possible impacts on foreign policy of a Biden victory. We also talk about why Donald Trump's maximalist negotiating policy towards North Korea hasn't worked out so well. |