George W. Bush

When it comes to democracy promotion, it seems the Obama-Trump era is the aberration.

We need a return to a sober Christian Realism that appreciates our fallenness, the fallenness of the world, and our limits in shaping world events.

In fact, this finger-in-the-dam strategy is the best available option given America’s de facto preference to enjoy relative freedom from jihadist violence without the expense of solving the root problems from which jihadism springs. This style of frontier warfare is the price America pays for regional order on the cheap.

All in all, American Power and Liberal Order is an excellent book providing a spirited defense of what has largely been a successful American grand strategy for the past 70 years. The big question remains whether the same framework could work for the next 70 years, or whether new external challenges and internal political changes call for a different approach.

National Security Advisor John Bolton labeled the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela as Latin America’s “Troika of Tyranny.” Does this signal a drastic change in US foreign policy toward Latin America? Or can we expect more of the same?

Helping nations in need often serves America’s most important interests while burnishing America’s highest ideals.

The downward trend in foreign aid spending by the US government is not a function of the American people losing interest in foreign aid. After all, it has never been popular. More likely, it’s a function of presidents no longer defending foreign aid, explaining it, or connecting it to the national interest.

Nobody seems willing to look at their tribe or blame themselves for their role in our current state of national politics.

Last April, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf spoke at Georgetown University. Asked to assess the state of African democracy, she also spoke about the United States. Her conclusion was optimistic.