Bacevich on U.S. Foreign Policy After Iraq

November 7, 2008 in Foreign Policy by Greg | 3 comments

In June of this year, Dr. Andrew J. Bacevich1 gave a talk entitled “U.S. Foreign Policy After Iraq” at the “Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy & Civil Liberties” conference sponsored by The Future of Freedom Foundation. Introduced as a “man of principle”, Dr. Bacevich discussed the effects of the Iraq war and how the United States should deal with the implications “in light of” that war.

In this series of six videos, Dr. Bacevich argued that over the last five years the U.S. became “strategically adrift . . . [with] no agreed upon principled approach to dealing with the world in which we live”. In light of current U.S. foreign relations, he suggested that this most recent presidential election should be a discussion about those principles.

Since it does not appear that any substantive debate took place between the two major political party candidates on these issues, what do you think those principles should be?

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See the remainder of the videos at The Future of Freedom Foundation YouTube channel.

Sources:

  1. Andrew J. Bacevich is Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University and a past fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.↩

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Tags: Andrew J. Bacevich, Foreign Policy

  1. HansNo Gravatar on November 7, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    I guess it’s a little after the fact with the election being over now, but I think President Obama will need really tie in the energy crisis into our foreign policy. Because oil prices have plummeted recently, we actually have some leverage when dealing with Iran and Venezuela. I believe that the statistics show that at the current value of a barrel of oil (circa $57 I believe) these two countries are in a major budget shortfall. They covered up high unemployment with government subsidies and work which, without oil revenue, is no longer there. Suddenyl Iran has 30% inflation and Ahmadinejad is no longer popular.

    We can actually show up to the Iran baseball game with a bat now that we have leverage, whereas before OPEC had us by the…well, you get the picture.

    If an Obama administratioon works with allies to strategically get away from OPEC, foreign policy can then be made based on what is right instead of where does the oil run through. Keep in mind that I am not highly critical of the Iraq war but truly believe energy independence will not only help us at the pump, but at the bargaining table.

  2. S.FauxNo Gravatar on November 7, 2008 at 6:42 pm

    Thanks for posting this. I have great respect for Bacevich, if for no other reason than he lost a military son in Iraq to a war he opposed. Actually, I think Bacevich had insights that President Bush should have listened to. I don’t believe history will be kind to Bush. There were just too many mistakes.

  3. GregNo Gravatar on November 7, 2008 at 6:48 pm

    I hear ya, Hans. It will be interesting to see which direction Obama goes. But if Obama attempts to end the age of oil as he has said, then we will have a major problem at hand.