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Bernie Sanders Opened A New Foreign Policy Debate
Bernie Sanders Opened A New Foreign Policy Debate
But there are a lot of details that still need to be filled in.
https://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-opened-a-new-foreign-policy-debate/
Senator Bernie Sanders received rapturous applause from progressives for his foreign policy speech at Westminster College last week. “One of the finest speeches of his career,” wrote the Nation’s John Nichols. “The progressive foreign policy speech we’ve been waiting for,” said Stephen Miles. Jacob Heilbrunn of the more conservative National Interest suggested Sanders was bringing “regime change” to the liberal interventionism of the Democratic establishment. The reaction was understandable: the speech was like a thunderclap breaking the silence of any serious foreign policy challenge from the left.
The Sanders speech indeed opened a new debate and offered the first steps towards a fundamentally different policy, but it also leaves many questions unanswered. It elevated some new challenges to Democratic party thinking, though not always with policies to match.
Sanders’s central contribution is to upend the military-dominated definition of national security. He elevated the threats posed by climate change, which he noted is “real and already causing devastating damage.” Donald Trump, a climate denier, did not deign to mention the subject at all in his recent address to the United Nations.
Sanders also called out the threat posed by extreme inequality and the “movement toward international oligarchy” in which “a small number of billionaire and corporate interests have control over our economic life.” That’s not a new argument from Sanders, but here he explicitly framed it as a matter of national security. “This planet,” Sanders argued, “will not be secure or peaceful when so few have so much, and so many have so little….There is no justification for the incredible power and dominance that Wall Street, giant multinational corporations and international financial institutions have over the affairs of sovereign countries throughout the world.” It is revealing that Trump, while trumpeting America First and state sovereignty in his address to the United Nations, made no mention of this reality.
But there are a lot of details that still need to be filled in.
https://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-opened-a-new-foreign-policy-debate/
Senator Bernie Sanders received rapturous applause from progressives for his foreign policy speech at Westminster College last week. “One of the finest speeches of his career,” wrote the Nation’s John Nichols. “The progressive foreign policy speech we’ve been waiting for,” said Stephen Miles. Jacob Heilbrunn of the more conservative National Interest suggested Sanders was bringing “regime change” to the liberal interventionism of the Democratic establishment. The reaction was understandable: the speech was like a thunderclap breaking the silence of any serious foreign policy challenge from the left.
The Sanders speech indeed opened a new debate and offered the first steps towards a fundamentally different policy, but it also leaves many questions unanswered. It elevated some new challenges to Democratic party thinking, though not always with policies to match.
Sanders’s central contribution is to upend the military-dominated definition of national security. He elevated the threats posed by climate change, which he noted is “real and already causing devastating damage.” Donald Trump, a climate denier, did not deign to mention the subject at all in his recent address to the United Nations.
Sanders also called out the threat posed by extreme inequality and the “movement toward international oligarchy” in which “a small number of billionaire and corporate interests have control over our economic life.” That’s not a new argument from Sanders, but here he explicitly framed it as a matter of national security. “This planet,” Sanders argued, “will not be secure or peaceful when so few have so much, and so many have so little….There is no justification for the incredible power and dominance that Wall Street, giant multinational corporations and international financial institutions have over the affairs of sovereign countries throughout the world.” It is revealing that Trump, while trumpeting America First and state sovereignty in his address to the United Nations, made no mention of this reality.
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