The world is changing in significant ways, and those changes call for new approaches to American foreign policy. That’s the theme of a compelling essay in the journal Foreign Affairs by the writer and policy analyst Ben Rhodes.
It’s a timely argument, one that should get attention as we approach the November election. President Joe Biden has moved in the right direction by promoting a foreign policy based on diplomacy and engagement, Rhodes writes. But the old rules-based global order, led by the United States, no longer really exists, and our policies need to adapt.
“An updated conception of U.S. leadership — one tailored to a world that has moved on from American primacy and the eccentricities of American politics — is necessary to minimize enormous risks and pursue new opportunities,” he writes.
It’s true that the world has moved on. When I was first elected to Congress and began working on foreign policy, we lived in a bipolar world, with the United States and the Soviet Union as the two undisputed global powers. After the Soviet collapse, the world was unipolar: The U.S. was the one superpower. Today, things are more complex.
China is contesting for influence and promotes its autocratic model as an alternative to our democratic norms. Russia is bullying its neighbors. Regional powers like India, Brazil and Turkey look to play a bigger role. America still has a great deal of influence, and we should use it to advance our interests and promote peace; but we are no longer the dominant world power.
Ben Rhodes is a friend. He worked with me at the Wilson Center and worked on the 9/11 Commission and the Iraq Study Group reports. A former speechwriter for Barack Obama, he’s an incisive thinker and a strong writer who makes his points with eloquence.
He writes that American foreign policy, even under Biden, has had “one foot in the past, yearning nostalgically for American primacy.” Stuck in a post-9/11 mindset, we’ve embraced undemocratic regimes and turned a blind eye to human rights abuses. Our support of unfettered markets arguably led to the 2007-08 financial crisis, which produced populist backlash. Our uncritical support of allies – in the Middle East, for example – has made us vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy. “Over the last two decades, American lectures on democracy have increasingly been tuned out,” Rhodes writes.
The essay was published when Biden was still seeking re-election. Now that Vice President Kamala Harris is the Democratic nominee, it is still timely. Harris, if she’s elected, could recalibrate foreign policy, keeping Biden’s focus on diplomacy and effective alliances but adapting to new realities. Of course, if Donald Trump wins in November, we’ll face a different set of circumstances. Rhodes writes that a second Trump presidency would embolden autocrats, weaken America’s model of democracy and turn us away from cooperation with allies.
Rhodes writes that we should forget the idea that the U.S. can dictate the outcome of world affairs. Instead, we need to pursue a foreign policy agenda that appeals to more of the world’s governments and people, including support for economic growth and clean energy and cooperation on new technologies. The most important thing we can do, he says, is to “detoxify” our own politics.
“The simple and repeated affirmation that all human life matters equally, and that people everywhere are entitled to live with dignity, should be America’s basic proposition to the world — a story it must commit to in word and deed,” Rhodes writes.
Such a story aligns with the best of America’s traditions and an optimistic view of our role in the world. We can argue about the details, but keeping our humane and democratic values at the center of our foreign policy will serve our interests and those of the world.
Lee Hamilton is a senior adviser for the Indiana University Center on Representative Government; a distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies; and a professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years. Send comments to [email protected].
