If I were elected president, I think I would ask Gen. Wesley Clark to be my Secretary of State, and Nikki Haley to be my National Security Advisor. Anthony Blinken would also play a major role in my administration, but before I tell you what it would be, he and I would have to talk.

I say this because I am now in the process of lining up my cabinet…….just in case. When Biden drops out and the party realizes that Harris would not be a winning candidate, let’s be honest. To whom else would they turn? (Don’t feel too sorry for Kamala Harris – she really doesn’t want to be president. She will be content to eliminate some of the pressure, spending four, or eight, years as the wife of Attorney General Emhoff.)

But my biggest concern is foreign policy. I spent an inordinate amount of time reading the NYT this morning and I was convinced that attention must be paid. I quote: “But now, with an undependable America, an aggressive Russia and a striving China, as well as a seemingly stalemated war in Ukraine and a deeply unpopular conflict in Gaza…..”. That about says it all, right?

I am reading a very interesting book, and although I am only about halfway through it, I will tell you about it. It’s almost ten years old and a lot has changed in ten years, but it brings up so many points in such a clear manner. Whether I agree with it or not, I am not sure. I will wait until the end. It’s NYT reporter Bret Stephens’ book America in Retreat: the New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder.

I have written about isolationism as a major and recurrent part of American international thinking already. (Well, gee, with 450 or more posts, what have I not written about already?) But Stephens did it so much better (he probably spent more time on his book than I did on my post). He describes American isolationist tendencies not as being a characteristic of only the right, or only the left, but of both. He has a fascinating section describing left wing Henry Wallace’s isolationism and right wing’s Robert Taft’s isolationism as being more closely related and more similar than one would expect. We know about World War I and Wilson’s second term campaign motto “He kept us out of war”, and we know that Roosevelt and Churchill had to keep America’s plans to help arm Britain during World War II a secret. But, after the war, there were again strong isolationist tendencies in this country, personified by Wallace and Taft. I had never focused on that

Stephens is not an isolationist. Of course, I am speaking of Stephens in 2014. I must admit that his many entries, often in dialogues, in the current Times have not captured my fancy, so I don’t really know how he feels today. Perhaps you do.

But the thesis of his book is that, during the Obama years, the United States is once again heading towards pulling back its activities in foreign affairs, and that this is dangerous. And he does give examples. Until very recently, he would probably have said the same things about both Trump and Biden.

No president comes out particularly well. He talks extensively about the George W. Bush years – saying that Bush had two foreign policies, and that they were contradictory. One was to maintain global order, which Stephens seems to feel that only the United States would be able to do, but also to support freedom and democracy everywhere, which Stephens says is idealistic, and totally impossible. He may be right.

When America in Retreat was written, we were of course still in Afghanistan, following what Stephens described as an indecisive course of action which would, he believed, lead to a withdrawal without leaving behind an Afghanistan able to maintain order. As to Iraq, Stephens believes that removing Sadam Hussein was the correct thing to do (WMD or not), and he lists a large number of ways that Sadam was harming global order.

Where the second half of the book will take me, I am not sure.

But today, with a possible Trump second term looming over us, we do need to be worried about all of the things that Stephens was talking about ten years ago. Trump was, after all, the architect of pulling us out of Afghanistan, which Biden completed after minimal delays, and we see that as a disaster, particularly for Afghans, but maybe as time goes on for neighboring Pakistan as well. Trump says that he will end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours, which means that he will lead Putin to believe that he can do anything without fearing American reprisal. Trump will again pull us out of the Paris accords and other international agreements, we can be sure. He will once again weaken our position with NATO. He will try to isolate us from China, by imposing dangerously high tariffs on Chinese manufactured goods. And who knows what he will try to do to isolate us from our other strong trading partner Mexico as he clamps down on the border between the two countries. The only place where isolationism may not be part of the Trump doctrine would be Israel – we really don’t know what he would do there other than I am sure he would try to expand the Abraham Accord countries.

Stephens seems to feel that anything that isolates us threatens global security and therefore threatens us, and the this is the only country who can – and should – play world policeman. Not doing this would of course put Europe at risk. If Putin “wins” the war in Ukraine, will he feel emboldened to go after the former SSRs, now independent European countries, most of whom are scared to death at the present time? If a NATO country is attacked, what would Trump do? In fact, what would NATO do – there’s an interesting article in today’s Times about Germany, where it is reported that 62% of Germans did not want Germany to become more involved in international affairs, and 71% were against Germany having a leading military role in Europe. (At one point, a German military role would have been anathema to most of the world; today – not so much.) And right wing victories in other European nations – most recently the Netherlands – might also not bode well for the entire continent standing up to an “aggressive” Russia.

I am pretty convinced that isolation will make this country more vulnerable. But I am also convinced that we don’t want to bite off more than we can chew. Whether we should maintain our military presence in so many places across the world is one example of a question that I would want my advisors to address.

This is why I will rely on the advice of Haley and Clark. I’d also like to bring General Milley back in some capacity, and maybe McChrystal.

As to the rest of my cabinet? I might hang on to Buttigieg, if only I could remember how to spell his name. Mayorkas would be out……completely out. He may, or may not, have done a good job – but I am not going to keep any obvious targets. 

Anyone else? One more. I think I would like to appoint Eric Holder as Secretary of DEI and Woke Affairs. Any objections?