Rudy's Foreign Policy

Good summary of Rudy Giuliani's recent Foreign Affairs article outlining the basics of his foreign policy. Summary by Philip Klein in the American Spectator here. The text of Rudy's article here. (For a dissenting, dismissive view of Rudy's piece, Fred Kaplan in Slate).

On the plus side (by my lights) for Giuliani:
--Wants to add a tone of realism while not abandoning a more idealistic goal
--Realizes the threat is to the international system (not just the US)
--Calls it a Long War.
--Has pointed to the need for better diplomacy and public relations/media interface (Bush gets an F- in this field)
--And is the candidate who most clearly understands Barnett's point about needing a SysAdministration Force (a blended military/security/humanitarian aid/engineering force)
--Possible Nixon (in terms of foreign policy): could head the cred to deal with the Palestinians (given his long standing Israeli support) and/or Iran.

Major negative with Giuliani for me:
--His emphasis on not showing weakness. He cites Lebanon in 1982 (rise of Hezbollah). In other words, he is for long term occupation of Iraq. Which to me misses one of the key points of Iraq....creating petri dishes for more and more complex jihad. [True that it is also a petri dish for American military learning of counterinsurgency to some degree, not sure they are equal in scope though].
--Tendency towards the equation of all groups as Islamo-fascist (like al-Qaeda and Baath in Iraq)...Kaplan's point.
--Possible Nixon (in terms of rule-bending).

tags technorati : rudy giuliani

tags technorati : terrorism

tags technorati : Long War