by CKR
Continuing my series on foreign policy statements by the presidential candidates, here’s my short version of Hillary Clinton’s statement in Foreign Affairs. Same ground rules. Read Clinton's essay. Links to previous posts in this series can be found here, along with links to other information on the candidates that I find useful.
Power and Principle
• Avoid false choices driven by ideology. Seeing choices as mutually exclusive reflects an ideologically blinkered vision of the world that denies the United States the tools and the flexibility it needs to lead and succeed. Power usually depends on blending policies.
• U.S. foreign policy must be guided by a preference for multilateralism, with unilateralism as an option only when absolutely necessary.
• Use our military as one element in a comprehensive strategy. Diplomacy and force must be balanced against each other.
• Make international institutions work, and work through them when possible. Although the United States must be prepared to act on its own to defend its vital interests, effective international institutions make it much less likely that we will have to do so.
• Ensure that democracy delivers on its promises. Calls for expanding civil and political rights in countries plagued by mass poverty and ruled by tiny wealthy elites will fall on deaf ears unless democracy actually delivers enough material benefits to improve people's lives.
• Stand for and live up to our values. As we counsel liberty and justice for all, we cannot support torture and the indefinite detention of individuals we have declared to be beyond the law.
A Stronger America
• End the war in Iraq.
• Rebuild our armed services and restore them body and soul.
• Withdraw from Iraq in a way that brings our troops home safely, begins to restore stability to the region, and replaces military force with a new diplomatic initiative to engage countries around the world in securing Iraq's future.
• Focus U.S. aid on helping Iraqis, not propping up the Iraqi government. Financial resources will go only where they will be used properly.
• Replace our military force with an intensive diplomatic initiative in the region. Convene a regional stabilization group composed of key allies, other global powers, and all the states bordering Iraq. The group will be charged with developing and implementing a strategy for achieving a stable Iraq that provides incentives for Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey to stay out of the civil war.
• Engage the world in a global humanitarian effort to confront the human costs of this war. A multibillion-dollar international effort under the direction of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees will address the plight of the two million Iraqis who have fled their country and the two million more who have been displaced internally. The United States, along with governments in Europe and the Middle East, must agree to accept asylum seekers and help them return to Iraq when it is safe for them to do so.
• Engage in targeted operations against al Qaeda in Iraq and other terrorist organizations in the region. Provide security for U.S. troops and personnel in Iraq and train and equip Iraqi security services to keep order and promote stability in the country, but only to the extent that such training is actually working.
• Play a constructive role in a renewed Middle East peace process. In addition to facilitating negotiations, we must engage in regional diplomacy to gain Arab support for a Palestinian leadership that is committed to peace and willing to engage in a dialogue with the Israelis.
• Expand and modernize the military so that fighting wars no longer comes at the expense of deployments for long-term deterrence, military readiness, or responses to urgent needs at home.
• Soldiers are wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq must receive health care, benefits, training, and support. Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to enable their families to provide the support they need. Develop a modern GI Bill of Rights.
Winning the Real War on Terror
• Be unrelenting in the prosecution of the war on al Qaeda and a growing number of like-minded extremist organizations.
• Understand not only their methods but their motives: a rejection of modernity, women's rights, and democracy, as well as nostalgia for a mythical past.
• Develop a comprehensive strategy focusing on education, intelligence, and law enforcement to counter the terrorists and the forces fueling support for extremism.
• The Taliban cannot be allowed to regain power in Afghanistan. Engage in counternarcotics efforts, fund crop-substitution programs, a large-scale road-building initiative, institutions that train and prepare Afghans for effective governance, and programs to enable women to play a larger role in society.
• Strengthen the national and local governments and resolve the problems along Afghanistan's border. Redouble our efforts with Pakistan. Design a strategy that treats the entire region as an interconnected whole.
• Get the clandestine service out on the street. Restore morale in our intelligence community, increase the number of agents and analysts proficient in Arabic and other key languages, and raise the profile and status of intelligence analysis.
• Rebuild our alliances. Help strengthen police, prosecutorial, and judicial systems abroad; improve intelligence; and implement more stringent border controls, especially in developing countries.
• Invest in first responders and prot our critical infrastructure. Help the most vulnerable cities prepare for an attack. Improve health-care delivery systems in order to manage the consequences of attacks. Improve the security of chemical plants and safeguard the transportation of hazardous materials so that terrorists do not have easy targets.
Security Through Statesmanship
• Engage with our adversaries, not for the sake of talking but because robust diplomacy is a prerequisite to achieving our aims.
• Iran must conform to its nonproliferation obligations and must not be permitted to build or acquire nuclear weapons. If Iran does not comply with its own commitments and the will of the international community, all options must remain on the table. On the other hand, if Iran is in fact willing to end its nuclear weapons program, renounce sponsorship of terrorism, support Middle East peace, and play a constructive role in stabilizing Iraq, the United States should be prepared to offer Iran a carefully calibrated package of incentives.
• Take dramatic steps to reduce our nuclear arsenal. Negotiate “an accord that substantially and verifiably reduces the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals.”
• Seek Senate approval of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by 2009.
• Support efforts to supplement the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
• Establish an international fuel bank that guarantees secure access to nuclear fuel at reasonable prices.
• Remove all nuclear material from the world's most vulnerable nuclear sites and effectively secure the remainder.
• Engage Russia selectively on issues of high national importance, such as thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions, securing loose nuclear weapons in Russia and the former Soviet republics, and reaching a diplomatic solution in Kosovo. Make clear that our ability to view Russia as a genuine partner depends on whether Russia chooses to strengthen democracy or return to authoritarianism and regional interference.
• Build on China’s participation in the North Korean negotiations to establish a Northeast Asian security regime. Undertake a joint program with China and Japan to develop new clean-energy sources, promote greater energy efficiency, and combat climate change. Persuade China to join global institutions and support international rules.
Strengthening Alliances
• Reestablish our traditional relationship of confidence and trust with Europe.
• Find additional ways for Australia, India, Japan, and the United States to cooperate on issues of mutual concern, including combating terrorism, cooperating on global climate control, protecting global energy supplies, and deepening global economic development.
• Return to a policy of vigorous engagement with Latin America. Support the largest developing democracies in the region, Brazil and Mexico, and deepen economic and strategic cooperation with Argentina and Chile. Continue to cooperate with our allies in Colombia, Central America, and the Caribbean to combat drug trafficking, crime, and insurgency.
• Target democracies in Africa for aid and other forms of support and work with them to strengthen regional institutions such as the African Union.
Building the World We Want
• The Education for All Act would provide $10 billion over a five-year period to train teachers and build schools in the developing world.
• Set specific targets in areas such as expanding access to primary education, providing clean water, reducing child and maternal mortality, and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Strengthen the International Labor Organization in order to enforce labor standards.
• Reengage in international climate change negotiations and reach a binding global climate agreement. Demonstrate a serious commitment to reducing US carbon emissions through a market-based cap-and-trade approach.
• Help developing nations build efficient and environmentally sustainable domestic energy infrastructures.
• Create formal links between the International Energy Agency and China and India and create an "E-8" international forum on ecological and resource issues modeled on the G-8.
• Make human rights a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy and a core element of our conception of democracy.