I disagree vehemently with Nikolas Gvosdev’s prescription at The Hill:
Yet any successor to McCain must realize that to succeed him, stirring speeches about American leadership and calls to arms to fight tyranny around the world are not enough. Indeed, “McCain-esque†rhetoric is insufficient to address the reality that growing numbers of Americans are questioning the central principle of the bipartisan foreign policy consensus: that the sustained deployment of U.S. power around the world is indispensable for managing an international system that promotes peace and stability through greater integration and interconnection and creates conditions for the spread of liberal values.
Just as America’s military power derives from the resourcefulness and abilities of ordinary soldiers and non-coms and not just a great officer corps, America’s power and influence in the world derives from the strength of its economy. That in turn is derived from the efforts and dedication of ordinary Americans not just a handful of Steve Jobses or Jeff Bezoses. If a great officer corps were all that was important, Germany would have won the Second World War.
Pursuit of GDP is futile, especially GDP increasingly based on borrowing and overconsumption. We will not have a vibrant economy based on a handful of overvalued trillion dollar companies but because most Americans work with commitment and dedication at jobs they think are worthwhile.
Americans are tired of a foreign policy that consists of invading and overthrowing the governments of countries that don’t pose a security threat to us. Aggressive war does not promote peace and stability. Inter that foreign policy with the dead.
