Mitt Romney’s Foreign Policy White Paper

Mitt Romney has rolled out his foreign policy strategy in a white paper titled "AN AMERICAN CENTURY---A STRATEGY TO SECURE AMERICA'S ENDURING INTERESTS AND IDEALS."

Mitt Romney has rolled out his foreign policy strategy in a white paper titled “AN AMERICAN CENTURY—A STRATEGY TO SECURE AMERICA’S ENDURING INTERESTS AND IDEALS.” I’ve embedded it below and am in the process of doing a more thorough analysis for publication elsewhere later today.

An American Century—A Strategy to Secure America’s Enduring Interests and Ideals

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is a Professor of Security Studies. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. ponce says:

    Looks like boilerplate wingnut nonsense. Check out this howler:

    While the stimulus has largely failed in its objective,it succeeded in running up the annual deficit to $1.3 trillion dollars, and brought us to a national debt of $14.8 trillion. The national-security consequence of this spending spree has been to place severe constraints on the availability of resources for national security purposes

    Does anyone outside the extreme fringe right believe our trillion dollar a year national security agencies are under “severe constraints?”

  2. Hey Norm says:

    Everything clipped from the paper above is either meaningless…or total BS.
    I look forward to your analysis of the meat of the paper, if there is any.

  3. Ebenezer Arvigenius says:

    So far (p. 10) unremarkable banalities on the lines of “we wish for everyone to be free and prosperous” without anything concrete. As if any administration, regardless of affiliation, had ever conducted international politics with the goal of spreading poverty and desperation :P.

    But this one is a howler:

    American leadership lends credibility and breeds faith in the ultimate success of any action,facilitating the participation not only of allies but also of others who are sitting on the sidelines. […] In the tradition of such U.N. ambassadors as Daniel P. Moynihan, Jeane Kirkpatrick and John Bolton, the United States must fight to return these bodies to their proper role of promoting democracy, human rights,and a peaceful and prosperous world.

    Are they really unaware that that clown was a significant factor in the US’s loss of leadership and credibility under Bush II?

  4. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Ebenezer Arvigenius:

    As if any administration, regardless of affiliation, had ever conducted international politics with the goal of spreading poverty and desperation :P.

    You mean that wasn’t Bush II’s intent in Iraq and Afghanistan?

  5. Hey Norm says:

    Romney now trails Cain in polling by Zogby.
    Does Cain have a foreign policy white paper?

  6. Zogby polls are meaningless and invalid. Which is why you’lll never see me post about one.

  7. Ebenezer Arvigenius says:

    10/11 are essentially a straw-man accusing the Obama administration of hating America and playing the expected apology card.

    What I find interesting from a psychological point of view is that despite education and highly-paid experts all GOP front-runners seem to be essentially stuck in an early 19th century mindset where you cannot show kindness to the heathen dogs because they will see it as weakness and attack immediately.

    This may seem a strange comment, but leadership usually incorporates at least a token attempt at understanding the wishes of those you want to lead and plan your actions accordingly. The GOP idea of leadership seems to be a kind of Arthurian naivete: if you are sufficiently strong and shining, people will throw themselves at your feet in awe of your specialness and follow you everywhere. They want leadership but don’t want to be bothered by their followers.

    Honestly, the only place outside of conservative foreign policy publications I have ever encountered this kind of banal, unreal concept of how the world works was in the kind of “white man’s burden” adventure novels that were popular in the late 19th, early 20th century.

  8. Ebenezer Arvigenius says:

    The economics chapter can essentially be skipped. Nothing you haven’t heard a million times. I find it somewhat troubling that apparently nowadays attacks on poicies no longer need to be argued. One can simply state them as fact. But then it’s a plan, not a speech.

    Reducing the national debt on a projected 4% GDP growth while at the same time enacting large-scale tax breaks is an … adventurous … idea however.

    BTW: If this is annoying to anyone I will stop immediately. I just thought it might be interesting to contrast James US-based views on a foreign policy with the view from the “receiving end” :D.

  9. Hey Norm says:

    Cain’s up on Romney in a YouGov poll too.
    You can only contain him…you can’t stop him!!!!
    I think all of Palin’s supporters are Cain bound.

  10. Hey Norm says:

    Cain told the Values Voter Summit on Friday that as president he’d upgrade the nation’s missile defense system and then tell Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “make my day.” I guess he does have a foreign policy position. Rock on Herman!!!!

  11. @Hey Norm:

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

    If you needed any more evidence that Cain has no idea what he’s talking about, the fact he apparently thinks Ahmadinejad holds any actual power in Iran should make that obvious.

  12. Just nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    @Ebenezer Arvigenius: Where is Romney getting the projected 4% GDP growth? And if it is just a projection garnered from WAGs why not go for 6% and increase the tax cuts to make the growth even stronger?

  13. Ben Wolf says:

    Romney’s assertion America is destined to lead the world confirms he is, in fact, the anti-christ. Obviously he intends to unite the planet under rule of the American Empire.

    One Government Romney!

  14. Ebenezer Arvigenius says:

    @Just: Sorry, real life interfered. There’s no explanation and the included appeal to authority is unsourced. He also seems to have found the holy grail of economics (increasing jobs while also increasing efficiency):

    Economists who have scored Romney’s plan estimate that it will produce economic growth of more than 4 percent per year, leading to the creation of more than 11 million jobs and bringing the unemployment rate below 6 percent during his first term in office. This robust growth, coupled with spending cuts and fiscal discipline, will also bring the federal budget deficit under control.