Building Back Better
The incoming Biden administration likely represents a return to US foreign policy as usual. Here's how a future left-wing administration could begin to improve on that.
Derek here. As always with Daniel’s columns, the comments section will be open to subscribers and he’ll be back to answer your questions within the next two weeks.
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As those reading this probably know, the likely selections that Joe Biden will make for his foreign policy team—Tony Blinken has been announced as secretary of state, Jake Sullivan as national security advisor, Avril Haines as director of national intelligence, and other potential appointees include Michèle Flournoy, Samantha Power, and Susan Rice—continue to embrace the shibboleths about American “world leadership” that have characterized US foreign policy for decades.
In a future column, I’ll explore the beliefs and histories of some of these figures. But as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday (at least in the United States), I wanted to take this opportunity to present a 20-Point Program that could serve as the basis for a left-wing foreign policy in a future democratic socialist presidential administration. This, I hope, will provide some food for thought over the long weekend.
We all know that Bernie Sanders lost the Democratic primary. It’s therefore unlikely that in the foreseeable future a genuine anti-imperialist will occupy the Oval Office. For this reason, as I’ve suggested in an earlier column, now is a time for regrouping, for thinking through some of the policy platforms and programs that will make left-wing ideas actionable. Just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, the American Empire won’t be destroyed in a day. Instead, drawing down the empire will be a complex, perhaps even generational, task, which requires action on a number of fronts.
And this is what I hope to offer below. Each point consists of an action followed by a short explanation. You’ll notice that in several areas I suggest creating “task forces” to study a particular problem. This is because, at this moment, the left does not have a solid enough understanding about how power works in the nexus between the foreign policy establishment, defense contractors, and government institutions. As such, one of the most important things an incipient left can do is map out the relations that influence the making of US foreign policy, in the hopes that doing so will identify weak points the left could attack. Moreover, task forces will help educate the public about the pathologies that have long defined US foreign policy.
I’m sure there will be disagreements within the left about what to do (or what not to do) with regards US foreign policy, but I hope that this list can inspire some discussion and debate.
Without further ado, here’s the program:
1) Establish a task force to review America's global basing posture with an eye toward base closures.
We all want to get rid of the approximately 750-bases that the US military currently controls. To begin this process, this task force will collect information about the global security environment that will be presented to the American people to let them know that, despite the rhetoric of the government and the media, we’re actually quite safe. This task force will also prepare counterarguments to the inevitable protests that will emerge from the various constituencies that will probably support keeping the bases open, such as the military and hawkish members of Congress.
2) Establish a task force on climate change and begin the process of putting together a multilateral group to address climate problems.
The Paris Agreement is only a first step on the path to addressing the climate crisis. But it’s very much not enough. To begin to truly deal with the impending climate catastrophe, the world’s largest polluters—the United States, China, and India especially—need to come together to develop policies and programs that enable industrializing countries to maintain a stable level of development while simultaneously reducing their carbon emissions. The United States, already developed and also quite wealthy, must take the lead in this effort and immediately begin reducing its carbon footprint. Special attention must be paid to the nations of the Global South, who have suffered prodigiously under North Atlantic imperialism and who must play a central role in determining global climate policy.
3) Establish a task force to review American defense spending with an eye toward cutting it.
This task force will collect information about American defense spending, focusing especially on the wasted dollars, graft, and grift that have resulted in the defense budget exploding to several hundred billion dollars. In particular, this task force will explore how a number of very powerful constituencies—congress members who rely on military pork; defense contractors; even unions whose leadership and members don’t want to see defense plants close—shape defense spending. The purpose of this task force will be to demonstrate to the American people that the nation could spend far less on defense and still maintain a very high level of security.
4) Establish a task force to examine the institutions of US foreign policymaking—the National Security Council, the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, etc.—with an eye toward reforming the entire policymaking structure.
The left needs to have an accurate sense of how the US foreign policymaking apparatus actually operates. This task force will develop a “power map” and in so doing identify the weak points of this structure. The US foreign policymaking apparatus is both very old and very byzantine, and any serious reform will be impossible unless the institutions that comprise it are transformed.
5) Begin the process of re-funding the nation's area studies programs by increasing support for language learning and study abroad.
Learning new languages and experiencing foreign cultures is an opportunity that should be easily available to everyone studying in the United States. Furthermore, becoming familiar with non-American societies is a way to expand individual Americans’ perspectives and help them develop empathy for foreign peoples.
6) Establish an anti-corruption task force to explore the relationship between the defense industry and the government.
The defense industry spends an enormous amount on lobbying. Americans should become aware of how this lobbying engenders corruption, leading to the procurement of new weapons systems that are never used. This task force should also highlight how undemocratic it is that particular wealthy interests are able to distort US policy to their liking.
7) Issue an executive order making it illegal for former government and military officials to consult or work for the defense industry.
The revolving door between the government, military, and private defense industry is a major reason why the United States wastes so much money on defense. Making it illegal for government and military officials to work for the defense industry could go a long way to transforming the relationship between contractors and the state, which would inevitably reduce defense spending—and, perhaps, foreign interventions generally.
8) Establish a task force to analyze and issue recommendations concerning the five populated US-controlled territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands, and American Samoa) with an eye toward giving the peoples of these territories meaningful representation in the government.
For too long, the United States has acted as a formal imperial power, governing territories that have, at best, a limited representation in government. This needs to change. A future left-wing government should make it a priority to work with local activists in these territories to determine how to increase their power within the institutions of US policymaking. Even if local activists do not desire statehood, the left must develop mechanisms to ensure meaningful representation for colonized territories.
9) Begin the process of joining international institutions like the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Although we live in a world of nation-states, in my opinion the ultimate goal of the left is to create ever-larger, ever-more democratic, and ever-more socialist polities that transcend parochial nationalisms. While this will not be accomplished anytime soon, we can help initiate this transformation by joining international institutions like the ICC, which, though they’re by no means perfect, begin to transcend national sovereignty.
10) Enact a humane immigration policy focused on refugee resettlement.
For several reasons, the United States should not use its military force to end human rights abuses abroad. First, we don’t know how these interventions will turn out—oftentimes, as in the case of Libya, they make things worse. Second, if we have the capabilities to pursue humanitarian interventions, that means we haven’t stripped the American Empire of the weapons that enable its rule. Nonetheless, a governing left should not turn a blind eye to human rights abuses. Instead of trying to end them with force, we should ameliorate them by welcoming all those who suffer under oppressive governments into our country. Simply put, refugees should have a right to resettle in the United States, they should receive government support as they do so, and they should have access to a fast track to citizenship.
11) Issue an executive order that provides blanket amnesty to undocumented immigrants.
The United States’ immigration system is unnecessarily cruel and complicated. One of the first things a democratic socialist president should do when in office is issue an executive order that provides blanket amnesty to undocumented immigrants. Even if this order was challenged by Republicans or Democrats, it could at least change the terms of debate surrounding immigration and place citizenship for undocumented people at the center of the political agenda.
12) Issue an executive order that dismantles US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The depredations of ICE hardly need elucidating. This organization has adopted genuinely Gestapo-esque tactics to terrorize undocumented immigrants and should be immediately abolished. Doing so would also signal to politicians and the American people that the new administration is serious about institutional reform.
13) Enact sanctions against US companies that sell surveillance and other technologies to authoritarian governments.
As stated above, the United States should not deploy its military force to end human rights abuses abroad. Nonetheless, the government should use every tool at its disposal to sanction American companies that sell technologies that assist foreign governments in oppressing their own people. Though we can’t make the world in our image, we can at least prevent our own companies from directly contributing to others’ suffering.
14) Drastically increase State Department funding and transform the education of diplomats.
The State Department receives comically fewer monies from the government than the Defense Department. This both hollows out our diplomatic corps and demonstrates to the world that the United States is more interested in using force than in pursuing negotiations. A wise foreign policy must emphasize diplomacy, which will only be possible if we re-fund the State Department. Nevertheless, US diplomats can’t just approach diplomacy as they have in the past, when many assumed the necessity of US global hegemony. New diplomats must be trained in a more internationalist approach that rejects US primacy and stresses that the United States is simply one nation among many with no special claims to the resources of the global commons.
15) Order the Department of Justice to investigate war crimes committed by previous administrations (Republican and Democratic both), with an eye toward prosecuting violators.
US foreign policymakers are notoriously unaccountable. Even when their policies and actions violate American—to say nothing of international—law, they usually escape prosecution. The only way for such unaccountability to end is for presidential administrations to prosecute (and hopefully, convict) those who violated the law. This will also demonstrate to the international community that the United States is serious about changing its stripes.
16) End the United States’ contribution to NATO.
The countries of Europe are rich and safe. There is thus no reason for the United States to foot any of the European defense bill. Furthermore, NATO (founded in 1949) is very much the product of a Cold War that has been over for decades. The United States should leave Europe to the Europeans, and bring its money, and its troops, home.
17) Prevent the military from flying jets over sporting events and end other public displays of military virtuosity.
The United States is permeated with an ambient culture of militarism. Public displays of military virtuosity, such as flying jets over football games, engenders, promotes, and reinforces this culture. A democratic socialist president must therefore immediately end these and similar public displays.
18) Order the military to stop working with movie and video game companies.
Another way that many young Americans, particularly young men, are taught to valorize the military is through popular entertainments like movies and video games. Though the government shouldn’t prevent companies from making products that glorify the military, it can and should prevent the military from working with these companies.
19) Pardon whistleblowers.
The US government has a long and ignoble history of prosecuting or going after whistleblowers who expose state and military wrongdoing. This must change, as whistleblowing is one of the most important ways for the American people to discover that their government has betrayed them. Once in office, a democratic socialist president should immediately pardon whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, which would demonstrate to the public (as well as those who work for or with the government) that the new administration values, respects, and protects those willing to take risks to defend what are supposedly American ideals.
20) Establish a task force to review the process for fulfilling Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and immediately release all documents more than 25-years old.
At present, the waiting time for FOIA requests is unconscionable, which prevents Americans from learning about what their country has done in the past. A democratic socialist president should create a task force to review the FOIA system and offer suggestions for how to streamline it. Furthermore, this president should immediately order the release of all documents older than 25 years.
So, there’s my 20-point program. As I stated at the beginning of this article, this list is a work in progress that’s intended to start, rather than end, debate and discussion.
In the coming years, the nascent American left will need to develop policies, initiatives, and programs that define its foreign policy and approach to international affairs. If we don’t, the same old and atavistic establishment shibboleths will continue to triumph in Washington, DC. Neither us, nor the world, can afford that.
Hi Daniel,
A second comment: Although I agree with you that the U.S. shouldn't intervene to end "human rights abuses" (obviously extremely broad and counterproductive if applied) all over the world, I think it's worth discussing intervening in individual cases of extreme abuses such as genocide/crimes against humanity if it's possible legally on the national and international level and with the backing of all great powers (so exclude Kosovo or Syria), if truly all channels of dialogue have been exhausted (exclude Libya, where the AU was still negotiating w Gaddafi) and if there's a good chance of success. So these cases obviously wouldn't happen often - World War II is such an example. However, instead of having bases all around the world, the U.S. should contribute civilian staff, troops and resources to UN missions and deploy them if host countries request them and it makes sense strategically and politically (so any country where the U.S. has a history of violence would fall out - that would be a sizeable chunk of the globe). UNMISS in South Sudan with its civilian protection mandate could be such a case. The South Sudanese population overwhelmingly supports UNMISS: https://unmiss.unmissions.org/public-opinion-survey-reveals-widespread-hope-lasting-peace-among-south-sudanese
Hi Daniel,
These are good ideas, but what I'm missing are proposals for transforming the global liberal economic order currently undergirded by US imperialism. Democratizing the IMF, WTO and World Bank, orienting these transformation along the lines of the New International Economic Order: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_International_Economic_Order
Also, on point 5 I have a concrete proposal: Expand Peace Corps, turn it into a two-way street so foreigners from host countries could also do community service in the U.S. (for example old age care homes, working w refugees) under the condition they are not used to push down wages/do not replace workers, focus more on the cultural exchange aspect than the development cooperation aspect of Peace Corps (although in some cases volunteers do help fill needs) and open it up to people who don't have a college degree.