BY STEPHEN M. WALT
If you’re a pundit defending a weak case, at that topographic point are several familiar techniques you lot tin employ. You tin mischaracterize the views of those amongst whom you lot disagree to move inwards easier to criticize them. You tin distort the historical tape as well as so that the so-called prove appears to back upwardly your instance to a greater extent than than it actually does. Or you lot tin rely on guilt past times association as well as suggest that the views of people you lot disagree amongst are to a greater extent than or less identical to the views of people who are already regarded as unsafe or unsound. In a recent column inwards Bloomberg, the historian Hal Brands displays an impressive mastery of all 3 techniques. His target is a grouping of scholars—John Mearsheimer, Barry Posen, as well as myself—who possess got published plant that are critical of recent U.S. unusual policy as well as possess got highlighted some of the failings of the foreign-policy establishment. Brands points out that President Donald Trump has also been critical of past times foreign-policy decisions as well as has heaped scorn on some parts of that same establishment. According to Brands, this congruence agency nosotros 3 scholars are actively aligned amongst the 45th president. In his words, “It is unusual to discovery academics at some of America’s most elite universities inwards enthusiastic understanding amongst Donald Trump.”
You run into how this works? Trump is critical of U.S. unusual policy as well as those responsible for it; Mearsheimer, Posen, as well as Walt are too. Ergo, Mearsheimer, Posen, as well as Walt must move “enthusiastic” Trumpians. Although Brands subsequently acknowledges that all 3 of us possess got been “critical of Trump himself,” the clear implication is that spell nosotros may discovery Trump personally distasteful, nosotros handgrip the same outlook on earth affairs that he does as well as are inwards favor of to a greater extent than or less the same policies.
Needless to say, this not-so-subtle smear tactic is without foundation. Although all 3 of us believe U.S. unusual policy has gone badly off the rails inwards recent decades, nosotros possess got been as critical of Trump’s treatment of unusual policy as well as the beliefs that underpin it. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 quick reading of Posen’s Foreign Affairs article on “The Rise of Illiberal Hegemony” or Chapter six of my mass The Hell of Good Intentions (titled “How Not to Fix U.S. Foreign Policy”) demonstrates this beyond doubt.
Moreover, anyone tin play the guilt-by-association game. Brands believes that the US of America should croak along to move the world’s strongest armed forces power. Guess what? So does Trump, whose defense forcefulness budget called for substantial increases inwards spending. Brands also believes that Red People's Republic of China is a growing armed forces as well as economical challenge. Surprise! Trump does too. Brands has written that “[i]t may good move worth keeping 10,000 or as well as so U.S. troops [in Afghanistan] if doing as well as so prevents the Taliban from winning the state of war as well as keeps Islamic State as well as al-Qaeda from re-consolidating rubber havens that they could utilization to execute major terrorist attacks.” Golly, that is pretty much what Trump decided as well. By Brands’s ain logic, therefore, he’s to a greater extent than Trumpian than nosotros are! I don’t yell upwardly that’s actually the case, past times the way, but it shows you lot why guilt past times association is such a bogus way to test to win an argument.
Brands mischaracterizes our views inwards some other way. He defends the foreign-policy institution past times arguing that the “persistent global engagement” it has long advocated played a “vital role” inwards foreign-policy successes such as the Balkan wars of the 1990s as well as the kickoff Gulf War inwards 1991. The implication is that those of us who are critical of that institution today are opposed to “global engagement” as well as thus akin to isolationists.
Stephen M. Walt is the Robert as well as Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University. @stephenwalt
Nothing could move farther from the truth. All 3 of us supported the 1991 Gulf War (for familiar balance-of-power reasons), as well as nosotros possess got repeatedly emphasized that the US of America should rest economically, diplomatically, and, inwards some cases, militarily committed closed to the world. For example, Mearsheimer as well as I possess got written extensively well-nigh the need to residue Red People's Republic of China inwards Asia, an endeavor that volition require a sustained U.S. armed forces presence there. We practise believe that U.S. unusual policy since the terminate of the Cold War has been generally a failure—especially given the stated objectives of every president from Bill Clinton forward—and that a to a greater extent than realistic as well as restrained unusual policy would move amend for the country. But none of us favors a furnish to Fortress America, permit lone Trump’s version of “America First.”
Which brings us to Brands’s reading of the historical record. His defense forcefulness of recent U.S. unusual policy rests on the claim that it hasn’t actually been as well as so bad. One sees this clearly inwards his characterization of the Republic of Iraq as well as Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan wars as “disappointing.” To telephone telephone these wars “disappointing” is a fleck similar calling the Hindenburg crash a “mishap” or describing Hurricane Sandy as “poor beach weather.” But those debacles are exactly the most clear-cut examples of recent foreign-policy blunders. One could add together the misguided determination to pursue open-ended NATO expansion, which poisoned relations amongst Russian Federation as well as helped trigger the crisis inwards Ukraine; the ham-handed diplomacy that produced the Kosovo war; the strategic folly of dual containment, which required keeping thousands of U.S. troops inwards Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as thus helped inspire the 9/11 attacks; the ill-fated U.S. interventions inwards Libya, Yemen, as well as Somalia; the refusal to verbalise seriously to Islamic Republic of Iran as it went from having nil nuclear centrifuges to operating thousands; the bipartisan bungling of the Oslo peace process; as well as many more.
Brands correctly reminds us that past times U.S. leaders made some big mistakes, too, of which the Vietnam War is peradventure the most obvious. But as I noted inwards my recent book, “the overall surgery of some previous administrations was nevertheless impressive, particularly when 1 considers that they were dealing either amongst formidable expansionist powers (Germany as well as Nippon inwards the 2 earth wars) or confronting a continent-size, nuclear-armed superpower whose revolutionary ideology attracted considerable back upwardly closed to the globe. … They made their amount portion of mistakes … but they also got many big things right.”
By contrast, today’s foreign-policy elite started out amongst the US of America at the pinnacle of a far to a greater extent than benign earth as well as proceeded to larn most of the big things wrong. No direction fails at everything, of course, but neither Clinton, George W. Bush, nor Barack Obama could indicate to whatsoever major foreign-policy successes, as well as each made costly as well as avoidable mistakes. For all three, the taproot of their failures was a bipartisan commitment to “liberal hegemony”—the thought that the US of America should utilization its vast ability to spread liberal values all closed to the world, peacefully if possible but if necessary past times force. This is non exactly engagement; it is an actively revisionist endeavor to reshape local politics inwards many dissimilar places. And the foreign-policy institution has remained staunchly committed to this worldview, despite the many failures it has produced.
Moreover, the fact that previous administrations also made mistakes is hardly a argue to move uncritical of to a greater extent than recent blunders or to give those responsible for them a costless pass. Brands’s proposition that recent setbacks “are no worse than those of whatsoever other 30-year menses inwards American history” is a recipe for complacency that makes it to a greater extent than probable that past times errors volition move repeated.
Finally, let’s move clear well-nigh what is actually at stake here. Brands disagrees amongst us what U.S. grand strategy should be. That’s his privilege. He thinks liberal hegemony has worked pretty good as well as that the US of America ought to stick amongst it. Accordingly, he thinks the bipartisan foreign-policy elite that has embraced this strategy is doing a pretty proficient job. He’s entitled to his opinion, as well as he’s welcome to challenge our views on the merits.
So why test to associate us amongst Trump as well as distort our views inwards other ways? One suspects that it is because Brands knows the instance he’s defending is weak as well as that the American people aren’t buying it anymore. He may also move worried that the world (and a growing issue of politicians) volition discovery much to similar inwards the alternatives nosotros possess got proposed (e.g., “offshore balancing” or “restraint”). If so, that would explicate why he’s working overtime to discredit these alternatives as well as is willing to rely on questionable tactics to practise it.
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