Maintaining good relations with our friends is crucial for projecting global strength.
The last few weeks have been big ones for President Trump’s national-security agenda. John Bolton took his seat as the new national-security adviser and Mike Pompeo was confirmed as the secretary of state. Bolton and Pompeo will be tested. Former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden stated recently: “The world has been more dangerous, but it has never been more complicated.” In this environment, the national-security apparatus must be more effective and cohesive than it was during the first 15 months of the Trump administration. This requires that the State Department regain its footing as a participant in the halls of Washington and the capitals of our allies around the world.
The complicated landscape includes a rising power in China that fears democracy and civil liberties, is engaged in a fierce economic rivalry with the United States, and seeks to militarize the South China Sea. Russia has invaded Ukraine and Georgia, sponsored the brutal Assad regime in Syria, and aligned itself with Iran, and it is engaging in malicious cyber activity. North Korea threatens South Korea, Japan, and the United States with its nuclear weapons. Iran seeks to create a Shia Islamic crescent across the Middle East at the expense of Sunni Islamic countries and Israel. In addition, radical Islamic terrorism continues to develop and menace the United States and her allies.
Fortunately, the United States possesses four strategic advantages that should enable it to address these challenges successfully. The most important of these advantages is our robust, pluralistic democracy, governed by a Constitution that ensures checks and balances among the branches, with an independent judiciary and protection of key freedoms such as speech, expression, the press, religion, and association, as well as property rights. These property rights undergird our economy, the second strategic advantage. While its size in GDP terms may soon be eclipsed by that of China, it remains the most open, innovative, and diverse economy in the world, and it will soon enjoy energy independence. The third strategic advantage is our military and intelligence-gathering resources. These elements give us an essential blanket of protection and advance notice against those who would do us harm. These three strategic advantages buttress the last and perhaps most often overlooked one: the United States’ influence throughout the world, particularly in the context of its alliances.
Paul Miller observed in his recent book American Power and Liberal Order: A Conservative Internationalist Grand Strategy that the United States, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom represent 53 percent of global GDP, 34 percent of material capabilities, and 56 percent of global military spending. In comparison, China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia represent 13 percent of global GDP, 26 percent of material capabilities, and 13 percent of global military spending.
The United States must be fully engaged with her key allies on an ongoing basis, something Secretary of State George Schultz called ‘gardening.’
While the numbers are heartening, a numerical advantage in these important categories is not enough. The United States must be fully engaged with her key allies on an ongoing basis, something Secretary of State George Schultz called “gardening.” Listening to your allies’ views and sharing those of the United States, even when there is disagreement, is central to the mission of the State Department. But this works only when allies believe that the secretary of state speaks for, not at odds with, the president. Secretary Rex Tillerson’s management of alliance relationships was marred by statements that were inconsistent with messages from the president. While this may not have always been Secretary Tillerson’s fault, it was clear that the president and the secretary of state did not share a sufficient level of rapport for our allies to trust that Secretary Tillerson had the president’s ear.
Our alliance relationships also depend on a fully engaged and staffed State Department. Secretary Tillerson has left the State Department with low morale and many senior positions and embassies lacking permanent appointments. The gardening cannot be done by the secretary of state alone, and, like our allies’ leaders and foreign ministers, their diplomats at lower levels want to know that their American peers are speaking in concert with the secretary of state and the president. Filling these staffing gaps should be a top priority for Mr. Pompeo.
With the alignment between the secretary of state and the president and a full complement of critical personnel, gardening should take place in three key geographies:
Europe: Reinvigorating relationships with some of our oldest and strongest allies will send a clear message that there is no space between the United States and its European friends when it comes to Russia’s bad behavior. This is a message Vladimir Putin needs to hear as he continues to play the role of a belligerent. In addition, European support is critical as the United States considers unwinding the Iran nuclear deal, and we have an ongoing mutual interest in eroding the threat of Islamic terrorism.
Asia: The United States must continue to work hand-in-glove with Australia, India, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea to address China’s militarization activities in the South China Sea, as well as North Korea’s nuclear threats. Efforts to bring the United States and her longer-standing allies closer to India, the world’s most populous democracy and the site of a dynamic economy, must continue and deepen. The president’s recent instruction to his senior trade and economic advisers to consider participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be welcomed by our Asian allies.
Middle East: One of the areas that improved under Secretary Tillerson is our alliance relationships with Israel and Saudi Arabia. Both countries are necessary partners in pushing back against Iran, addressing the bleeding ulcer that is Syria, and fighting Islamic terrorism. In addition, the United States should continue to provide political and military support to Iraq. This is an important hedge against Iran, and however immature and sometimes dysfunctional Iraq may be, it is a fledgling democracy that warrants our investment.
Trade, immigration, and support for democracy and rule of law also require engagement with our allies around the globe. But regardless of the foreign-policy goal, the United States must foster and invest in its alliance relationships to ensure positive outcomes. This begins with a president and a secretary of state who are aligned with each other and a State Department that is taken seriously by the United States’ national-security apparatus and our allies around the world. There is much gardening to be done.