At the water's edge - Republican Party foreign policy agenda - Editorial

PRESIDENTS have the initiative in foreign affairs, and Mr. Clinton is reported to want to concentrate on this area--in which he imagines himself to be on a roll--now that his domestic agenda is stymied by the Republican Congress. The bad news for Mr. Clinton is that Republicans have a foreign-policy agenda too, and are in a position to exert pressure over issues that concern them. For example:

--reversing the dangerous decline in our defense posture (expenditures are projected to sink over five years to 2.9 per cent of GDP, the lowest since the 1930s);

--pressing for bolder action to arm and assist the Bosnians now regaining ground from the Serbs;

--putting an end to profligate "humanitarian" interventions (Haiti, Somalia, etc.) that serve no strategic purpose and stretch our forces thin;

--bringing Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia into NATO at an early date, and keeping a wary eye on Russia's attempts to rebuild its empire;

--restoring adequate funding for defense against ballistic missiles, an historic project of Ronald Reagan's, and now an urgent priority;

--requiring that any modifications of the ABM Treaty now being negotiated with the Russians be submitted to the Senate as formal treaty amendments (which should stop in their tracks the dangerous concessions the Administration is now contemplating);

--tightening controls on exports of militarily usable technology, to keep it out of the hands of rogue states like North Korea, Iran, and Iraq.

Republicans will have other concerns as well. Foreign aid will undergo withering scrutiny in Senator Helms's Foreign Relations Committee, as will new State Department appointments. (Sorry, Strobe--the elections may have saved Warren Christopher.)

With power, however, comes responsibility, in foreign as in domestic policy. The Republicans have an obligation to live up to their postwar tradition as prudent internationalists. For that we need allies, particularly our traditional allies in NATO and Japan. We can use the United Nations to mobilize the world behind U.S. goals (but not vice versa, and never to put U.S. combat forces under UN operational command).

Republicans also believe in an open world trading system. Therefore, the new GATT should be ratified. This may be the first issue on which Republicans can show their willingness to cooperate with the President when he does something more or less right.

COPYRIGHT 1994 National Review, Inc.
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