A Failure of Leadership? Americans’ Views of U.S. Foreign Policy

Donald Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016 and then beat Hillary Clinton in the general election, in part, by pledging to focus on America’s domestic problems, including raising worker wages, solving the problem of unemployment and underemployment, and repairing the nation’s failing infrastructure. But he was hardly alone in taking this stance. The last four U.S. presidents were elected on promises to fight fewer foreign wars. Recent surveys show why such appeals are successful: The American people want to do more nation-building at home — and less of it abroad. Chris, Bryan, and guest co-host Rachel Hoff unpack the latest survey of U.S. public attitudes on foreign policy. Does Americans’ desire for a different form of global engagement, one that is less dependent upon U.S. military power, reflect a failure on the part of America’s foreign policy elite to explain the continued value of U.S. primacy? Or should those elites do more listening and less lecturing? Related, in the grievances portion of the podcast, Bryan and Chris disagree over whether war weariness is a sign of a mature foreign policy debate or rather evidence of Americans’ collective adolescence. Rachel offers attaboys to Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mike Gallagher, Bryan praises Larry Kudlow, and Chris gives kudos to Sen. Chris Murphy.   Links John Halpin, Brian Katulis, Peter Juul, Karl Agne, Jim Gerstein, and Nisha Jain, "America Adrift: How the U.S. Foreign Policy Debate Misses What Voters Really Want," Center for American Progress, May 05, 2019 David V. Gioe, "Make America Strategic Again," National Interest, April 17, 2019 Kyle Rempfer, "H.R. McMaster Says the Public is Fed A 'War-Weariness' Narrative That Hurts U.S. Strategy," Military Times, May 09, 2019 Sam Brodey, "White House Top Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow Undercuts Trump on Tariffs," Daily Beast, May 12, 2019 Chris Murphy, Twitter, May 13, 2019 Emma Ashford, Twitter, May 10, 2019 Loren DeJonge Shulman, Twitter, May 10, 2019 John Glaser, Christopher A. Preble, and A. Trevor Thrall, Fuel to the Fire: How Trump Made America's Broken Foreign Policy Even Worse (and How We Can Recover) (Cato Institute, Forthcoming 2019) "2018 National Defense Survey," Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, November 2018 2019 Nominees, The Cappies of the National Capital Area