Robert G. Kaufman: Reagans moral democratic realism then and now By ROBERT G. KAUFMAN / For the Register Ronald Reagan is the greatest president since World War II, with FDR his only peer in the 20th century. Reagan played an indispensable role in defeating the Soviet Union – an evil, totalitarian empire existentially threatening freedom. The spectacular revival the United States experienced under the Reagan administration demolished the gloomy conventional wisdom of the 1970s, forecasting the inevitability of American decline. Freedom, prosperity and democracy expanded vastly during the 1980s and beyond. Reagan amassed a towering foreign policy legacy. A neo-Reaganite grand strategy offers the surest guide for recovering and sustaining American greatness. It contrasts with President Barack Obamas neo-McGovernite Doctrine of conciliation and with Kentucky Sen. Rand Pauls unrealistic realism calling for a dangerously diminished U.S. role in the world. Prospective Republican candidates for 2016 should ponder the five enduring principles derived from a disciplined study of Reagans record. Voters should judge them accordingly. Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan dances with former first lady Nancy Reagan in this undated file photo. First, coalitions of the willing can supplement, but never substitute, for American vigilance. Good statesmen and decent, democratic states can mitigate, but never eliminate, the danger of war. No nation, no alliance, no international organization should have a veto on American action, particularly those as organically hostile to American values and as prone to gridlock as the United Nations. Second, understand that, historically, disarmament has invited disaster. Instead, the United States should strive for what Winston Churchill called overwhelming power to address unforeseen contingencies. Confronted with a large budget deficit, Reagan gave precedence to his military buildup, rightly envisaging it as freedom insurance. Third, not all regimes or ideologies are alike. Some are more aggressive or more benign than others. Ronald Reagan distinguished sharply between stable regimes, on one hand, and tyrannies animated by noxious, messianic ideologies, on the other hand. Today, a neo-Reaganite grand strategy would confront, not deny, the danger of radical Islamism, particularly a militant Iran on the verge of becoming a nuclear power. Today, a neo-Reaganite grand strategy would deem an expansionist authoritarian Russia and China as competitors requiring containment as well as engagement. Today, a neo-Reaganite foreign policy would focus less on conciliating adversaries and more on bolstering decent democratic allies. Fourth, American resources are abundant, but finite. Ronald Reagan assessed threats and interests based on the concrete imperatives of geopolitics rather than abstract unenforceable principles of cosmic justice. The United States cannot try to do everything, but must concentrate on the most important thing: preventing dangerous, dictatorial hegemons from emerging in the worlds power centers. Normally, that rules out interventions for humanitarian reasons alone, except in rare circumstances, such as Rwanda where the U.S. could have easily averted a genocide with minimal force, minimal risk and a certain exit strategy. Fifth, American leaders should embrace American exceptionalism. Ronald Reagan did not consider the United States a perfect nation, but a great one. Reagan called for the United States to wage war and conduct peace in a way consistent with American principles: “U.S. policy must have an ideological thrust which clearly affirms the superiority of U.S. and western values of individual dignity … and political democracy.” A neo-Reaganite grand strategy therefore incorporates the noble principles of the American founders without slighting the perennial imperatives of power and geopolitics. It inoculates Americans from the dangerous illusion of unrealistic realists such as Rand Paul and naïve idealists such as Barack Obama that the United States can safely abandon being the ultimate guarantor of world order. Neo-Reaganism will conduce to a more prosperous and more secure America than any plausible alternative. May America have foresight in 2016 to elect a president who champions Neo-Reaganism, with no pale pastels. Robert G. Kaufman is a professor of public policy at Pepperdine University.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 23:59:39 +0000