With so much political rhetoric surrounding the US Presidential Elections it is difficult to gain an understanding of how the elections will effect US Foreign Policy decisions going forward.  A recent report prepared by the Former US Diplomat & Foreign Policy Expert  and Chartwell speaker, James Rubin and Robert Kagan from the Center for a New American Security and endorsed by a number of leading Democratic and Republican foreign policy experts and former officials, offers genuine and bi-partisan insight into key factors a future President needs to address.

Here are the key points as highlighted by a Washington Post Editorial this weekend:

1. The post-WWII world order has paid enormous benefits for the United States but is now endangered. “The past 70 years have seen an unprecedented growth in global prosperity, lifting billions out of poverty. Democratic government, once rare, has spread to over 100 nations. Above all, for 70 years there have been no cataclysmic wars among great powers of the kind that devastated Europe and Asia in the first half of the 20th century.”
2. Without a strong U.S. presence in the world order and our security and prosperity will collapse under the weight of  “powerful and ambitious authoritarian governments like Russia and China, radical Islamic terrorist movements, long-term shifts in the global economy, the rise of non-state actors, the challenges of cyberspace, and changes in our physical environment.”
3. The US must spend more money on Defence . “An urgent first step is to significantly increase U.S. national security and defense spending and eliminate the budgetary straitjacket of the Budget Control Act. A second and related step is to formulate policies that take advantage of the substantial military, economic, and diplomatic power Washington has available but has been reluctant to deploy in recent years.”
4. In Asia, China is on the offensive so “the United States should do more to leverage its dramatic advantage in allies and regional security relationships. In that regard, a new diplomatic strategy of coordinating Asia policies with long-standing U.S. allies in Europe should be instituted. Such an approach plays to U.S. strengths and will add to perceptions of U.S. power.” This also includes passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It is argued that the US has failed “to respond to the new and unprecedented challenge from a rising increasingly assertive China.
5. In Europe, the group urges enhanced coordination in defeating the Islamic State and providing “Ukrainian armed forces with the training and equipment necessary to resist Russian-backed forces and Russian forces operating on Ukrainian territory” as well as economic assistance. They argue that “to deter Russian efforts to destabilize these nations, it is necessary to build upon the European Reassurance Initiative and establish a more robust U.S. force presence in appropriate central and eastern Europe countries.”
6. With regards to ISIS, the US must deny the Islamic State a free haven. To accomplish that “the international effort against ISIS is scaled up substantially. The United States should be prepared to lead such an effort, the aim of which should be to uproot ISIS from its sanctuary. The anti-ISIS alliance should have a global strategy that synchronizes military, intelligence, law enforcement, financial, and diplomatic operations. It should involve other major powers from around the world, and as many local and regional forces on the ground as possible.”
7. In Syria, it is argued that the crisis has been dealt with appallingly and big steps need to be taken to solve it:  “The crisis in Syria, which has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, is now spilling over that country’s borders in a dramatic way, destabilizing neighbouring countries in the Middle East and threatening the security and stability of Europe. The massive flows of refugees, measured in the millions, will become even more unmanageable if a political solution to the civil war ravaging Syria is not found sometime soon. Any such political solution must include the departure of Bashar al-Assad (but not necessarily all members of the ruling regime), since it is Assad’s brutal repression of Syria’s majority Sunni population that has created both the massive exodus and the increase in support for jihadist groups like ISIS.  . . .  [I]n light of this grim reality, the United States, together with France and other allies, must employ the necessary military power, including an appropriately designed no-fly zone, to create a safe space in which Syrians can relocate without fear of being killed by Assad’s forces and where moderate opposition militias can arm, train, and organize.”

If you would like to book James P. Rubin to speak at your upcoming event about US Foreign Policy contact Raleigh at Raleigh@chartwellspeakers.com or call +852-55129714

Post first published on LinkedIn by Raleigh Addington, Managing Director (Asia Pacific).