**Click here for a printable and clickable pdf download of the show notes from this episode.**

Show: 001 Top Priority Podcast | Foreign Policy Priority Initiative  

Date Recorded: December 18, 2019 

Host: Duane Lester, Manager of Issue Education, Grassroots Leadership Academy 

Guests: John Byrnes, Director of Issue Education, Concerned Veterans for America Foundation

Tyler Koteskey, Policy Analyst, Americans for Prosperity Foundation

Juliana Heerschap, Director of Policy Engagement, Concerned Veterans for America Foundation

Show Notes & Timestamps

• Why is the Stand Together Community involved in Foreign Policy? min [4:07]
• What is our Community position on Foreign Policy? min [6:40]

Our mutually reinforcing principle, Openness, informs: 

(1) Our Community’s philosophical default position on Foreign Policy 

(2) How we expect our government to engage with the world

**Click here for a printable and clickable pdf download of the show notes from this episode.**

Our Community, too, draws on sentiments from George Washington & Thomas Jefferson:

“It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world.” 
—George Washington’s Farewell Address to the Nation— 

“Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations—entangling alliances with none.”
 —Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address— 

• As a Community, when do we think our country should go to war? min [13:13]

Our Community believes four criteria must be met before going to war:

1. Is there vital national interest at stake? Namely is there (a) A threat to our ability to protect our liberal, democratic system at home? —OR— (b) A threat to the long-term prosperity and wellbeing of the United States?
2. Is there a clear strategy for war and the ability to achieve a specifically stated objective?
3. Is there Congressional approval as the US Constitution demands?
4. Is there a clear exit strategy in place for disengaging from war when the objectives are met?

• What does it mean to end our endless wars and how do we define an exit strategy? min [6:40]
• What does our Community mean by a Foreign Policy of Realism and Restraint? min [37:30]
• Does our Community stance on Foreign Policy mean we are anti-military? min [41:40]

Our Community stance on Foreign Policy is first and foremost one of respecting the humanity of our service men and women. We want to protect the wellbeing of our troops and we expect our government use the voluntary service of service men and women, in war, only when it is absolutely necessary and when government meets the four criteria before engaging in war. 

• We aren’t anti-war, our Community is anti-bad war. min [47:11]
• How does United States Trade Policy fit into Foreign Policy? min [48:09]
• How our Community views Foreign Policy through the lens of the four mutually reinforcing principles of our Vision: Equal Rights | Mutual Benefit | Openness | Self-Actualization
  min [54:30]

**Additional Resource: Watch Nate Anderson, Executive Director, Concerned Veterans for America at January 2020 Stand Together Summit | Ending the Moral, Fiscal, Constitutional, and Security Crises of Endless Wars | There is a better way. Together we can end endless wars.**

**Click here for a printable and clickable pdf download of the show notes from this episode.**