As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its second, disastrous year, the Republican Party must decide what its foreign policy will be. Certainly, GOP support for Ukraine cannot be taken for granted, given the responses of some presidential candidates or potential candidates to a questionnaire issued by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. Asked by Carlson if he “opposes Russia in Ukraine [is] a vital American national strategic interest,” said former President Donald Trump. “No, but it’s for Europe.” Florida Governor Ron DeSandis agreed that Ukraine’s defense is not vital to the US. Russia’s war, DeSantis said, is “a territorial dispute.”
Although DeSantis later reiterated that stance, such rhetoric risks ceding the high ground of the freedom cause to President Biden. While he could do more, Biden is right to support and arm Ukraine. This is not to complete the president of his myriad policy failures. History will offer no justification for Biden’s disastrous, aggressive withdrawal from Afghanistan, his appeasement and weakness toward Russia in the face of its invasion of Ukraine, and his inadequate support for Kiev in the early stages of the war. For the good of America and the world, Republicans should work to defeat Biden in 2024.
However, to get Ukraine policy right, the GOP cannot simply oppose the president. Instead, it must learn the right lessons from history, including the Trump administration’s foreign policy successes.
One narrative, embraced by some on the right, is that China is setting the real threat, while Russia’s war in Ukraine, however unfortunate, does not really affect US interests. According to this thinking, the war in Ukraine is a “distraction” from China, and the US should shift its focus from Europe to the Pacific.
Arguments of this kind are logically flawed. Russian success in Ukraine would give China what it wants: a defeat for democracy, a defeat for international law, and a defeat for America’s leadership in the world. If Ukraine’s sovereignty is lost, China will likely conclude that it can occupy Taiwan. The world will become more dangerous.
Along with the misguided “pivot to China” idea, there are calls to announce time and resource limits on America’s commitment to Ukraine. This may sound like a reasonable, conservative stance. But conservatives should see that such self-imposed restrictions would give Russia and China an incentive to outdo the US in a contest of power and values. Where our will and commitment are weak, theirs will be strong. and they are ready for a war of attrition.
Consider the possible outcome if Ronald Reagan, while confronting the Soviet Union, had announced in advance the limits of America’s absolute resolve during the Cold War. The USSR would patiently await America’s inevitable surrender. Millions would still live under Soviet oppression. There would be no independent, democratic Ukraine to defend.
At first glance, Republican distancing from Ukraine might seem consistent with Trump’s foreign policy. But Trump’s political heirs—and Trump himself, as a candidate—would do well to remember the distinction between the former president’s rhetoric and his actions in office. Trump, as a negotiator, has consistently used rhetoric to achieve his goals as he seeks the best “deal” for the American people from adversaries, allies, and even his own military.
Along with the discussion and deal-making, however, Trump pursued a foreign policy of strength. For example, he criticized former President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq but decimated ISIS’s territorial caliphate. He questioned the importance of NATO but, after successfully prodding member states to contribute more to its budget, strengthened the organization.
He wanted to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, but kept a residual force on the ground and the country’s fragile democracy intact. And while Trump has talked about a better relationship with Moscow, he has also sold Ukraine weapons — something the Obama-Mayden administration never did, even after Vladimir Putin invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014.
In today’s foreign policy debate, the GOP should look to Reagan and the record — if not always the rhetoric — of Trump. The excesses of the neoconservatives and the false promises of globalization deserve criticism. But isolationism, or a policy of restraint announced in advance to America’s enemies, will only lead to a more dangerous world. For the planet’s only democratic superpower, there can be no retreat.
Augustus Howard is a columnist focusing on national politics and foreign policy.
