Brainstorming Foreign Policy

I am becoming slightly concerned that we are not seeing any clear front-runners for Democratic president in 2028. I am only slightly concerned because we have a big mid-term election to go through yet. I suspect that some of the potential candidates are holding back until they see those results, which is fair enough. We the voters will also learn some things about those potential candidates through the election and whatever destruction Donald Trump manages to wreak.

At the same time, I am a great believer that we voters should also help those potential candidates along by telling them what we think and how we want the future to look. Considering the future is useful because it can lift our spirits. We can start doing the groundwork to prepare for it.

B. A. Friedman started off some interesting discussions with this Bluesky post.

Hilzoy came back with a long list of desirable policies. I’ll summarize them later in this post.

And it all made me think of some general principles.

Those five and a sixth I added later could be a basis for developing new policies, which we are going to have to do, and a way to question and evaluate potential candidates.

• End colonialism.
• No more wars.
• Human rights for everyone.
• End poverty.
• Eliminate nuclear weapons.
• Deal with global warming.

These are all principles that can be applied simultaneously. There is no need right now to prioritize them. Let’s do some brainstorming and think how they might work. There is also no need right now to develop 50-point programs to enact them. All that argument ties us in the past. I’m talking about brainstorming now, broad strokes of how we might get to these goals. We had started on most of these paths before Trump.

As an example, here are hilzoy’s suggestions:

• I support international law, but even more importantly, international norms: things it is understood that decent countries Just Don’t Do. There are very few of them, but I am thinking of things like: No wars of conquest.
• I support military aid to Ukraine up to the point where we’re risking nuclear war.
• We need to remove some powers from the President. No first use of nuclear weapons. Restrict the “you need to seek Congressional approval within 60 days” part of the War Powers Act to cases in which we or an ally has been attacked; otherwise, no act of war w/o a declaration.
• I don’t know defense procurement, but we need someone with serious cred who does. We need to cut some entire systems. I refuse to believe that each and every one fills a vital need. Also, the DoD needs to be able to pass an audit. If we aren’t already learning everything we possibly can from Ukraine, we should start asap.
• We should figure out what our vital interests are and focus entirely on them. If we ever get the Strait of Hormuz back open, we should try to disentangle ourselves from the ME as quickly as possible. Yes, that includes Israel. It has forfeited its claim to our unquestioned support.
• We need to realize that national security involves being smart about things like scientific research and renewable energy. Also, the rule of law. Having corrupt people making foreign policy is a security problem, and should be treated as such.
• Basically, though, I support a world in which conflicts are not decided by seeing who can kill the most people. That means laws, norms, and institutions. Since that world doesn’t exist yet, we need a military, and it should be as good as possible.
• Building weapons because they’re manufactured in someone’s congressional district is also a security issue, and congresspeople who ask for that should be scorned.
• We should identify threats and work to counteract them. We cannot focus on all of them.
• Also, when we can use our power to help solve a problem permanently, the way we helped solve e.g. The Troubles, we should.

I’d like to see more of this from our elected officials, but in the meantime, we can put good ideas forward.

And, in the spirit of brainstorming, I’d like to suggest that comments focus on what policies might be, not just condemning policies you don’t like.