How to forge ahead

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How to forge aheadLee H. Hamilton aa Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center forScholarsPublished online: 07 Jan 2010.

To cite this article: Lee H. Hamilton (2001) How to forge ahead, The Washington Quarterly,24:2, 123-130

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Lee H. Hamilton

How to Forge Ahead

JL ew words in politics are bandied about as much as bipartisanship.All politicians recognize that, like freedom or prosperity, its approval ratingsapproach 100 percent. Yet translating rhetorical support for bipartisanshipinto practice can be extremely difficult. Although Americans have consis-tently said that they want their elected officials to work across party lines,the nation's politics have been excessively partisan over the past severalyears. U.S. foreign policy has suffered as a result.

Foreign policy always has more force and punch when the nation speakswith one voice. When the president works with the opposing party andtakes its views into consideration, the policy that results is more likely tohave strong public support. Such a foreign policy makes the United Statesmore respected and effective abroad.

The United States is at a remarkable moment in its history. The interna-tional environment is relatively tranquil; there is no major threat to our se-curity; and we enjoy a position of unprecedented economic, political, andcultural preeminence.

We must not, however, take these good times for granted. Most Ameri-cans have barely begun to comprehend threats now on the horizon. To re-main secure, prosperous, and free, the United States must continue to lead.That leadership requires a president and Congress working together to fash-ion a foreign policy with broad, bipartisan support.

Obstacles to a Bipartisan Foreign Policy

The past several years have been marked by bitter partisanship both within

Lee Hamilton is the director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.He is a former congressman from the state of Indiana.

Copyright © 2001 by The Center for Strategic and International Studies and theMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Washington Quarterly • 24:2 pp. 123-130.

THE WASHINGTON QUARTERLY • SPRING 2001 123

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Congress and in the relationship between Congress and the White House.Then-President Bill Clinton's impeachment and last year's disputed presi-dential election stoked partisan flames to their most heated levels in recentmemory. Faced with the residue of those battles and a nearly evenly splitCongress and U.S. electorate, President George W. Bush faces an extraordi-narily difficult political climate.

His task is made more challenging by today's complex world environmentand the low public interest in foreign affairs. With the world changing at arapid pace and most Americans paying little attention to internationalevents, it has become more difficult for the president to shape a nationalconsensus about the purpose of U.S. foreign policy. Foreign policy debatesoften turn into partisan disputes because the national interest in a given is-sue is unclear.

Changes in the Congress have further complicated the task of developinga bipartisan foreign policy. Many members of Congress now view foreignpolicy as nothing more than an extension of U.S. domestic politics. They useforeign policy to curry favor with supporters or constituents or to scorepoints by attacking the president. Power in Congress on foreign policy hasbecome more diffuse in recent decades, as the main foreign policy commit-tees have lost influence to a variety of other committees and to individualmembers advancing specific causes. It may be misguided nostalgia to thinkthat Congress ever spoke with one voice in foreign policy, but now Congressseems often to speak with 535.

Additionally, foreign policy partisanship is exacerbated by the media. Themedia encourage policymakers to take controversial stances by focusing onpolitical conflict more than foreign policy analysis. A member of Congressdoes not get onto television by agreeing with, or explaining, theadministration's foreign policy. He or she gets attention by accusing the ad-ministration of failure or inadequacy.

Overcoming the Obstacles

It will not be easy for Bush to overcome these obstacles to build a bipartisanU.S. foreign policy. Certainly some things, such as the behavior of the me-dia, are beyond his control, but he can do several things to develop a strongforeign policy with broad congressional and public support.

TAKE CHARGE OF FOREIGN POLICY

Bush's leadership is the most important ingredient for success. The Ameri-

can people will generally support him on major foreign policy questions if he

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How to Forge Ahead |

vigorously makes his case. Early in the administration, Bush must set a stra-tegic direction for his foreign policy and determine what his priorities willbe. If he does not, his foreign policy will be muddled from the start. He mustarticulate his goals and explain how he intends to achieve them. Then hemust be prepared to fight for the tools and resources that he needs. Thepresident cannot leave these tasks to his ad-visers; he must be personally involved. Onsome complex foreign policy questions suchas national missile defense (NMD), he shouldappoint bipartisan task forces to look into theissues and advise him promptly on the bestapproach.

Once he has developed a framework forhis foreign policy, Bush must rally the nationbehind it by helping Americans understandthe central international challenges that we

face. This education cannot be done solely in interviews and press confer-ences; presidential speeches are essential to emphasize the importance ofthese issues.

I ranslating rhetoricalsupport forbipartisanship intopractice can beextremely difficult.

MAKING USE OF ASSETS IN CONGRESS

Although Congress frequently acts irresponsibly in foreign policy, it can—and often does—play a constructive role. Congress is the most accessibleand responsive branch of government. It can provide the president with awider range of perspectives than he may receive from his own advisers; ar-ticulate better than any other institution the diverse views of the Americanpeople; and refine and improve policy through its deliberative processes.Congress can also help the president educate the public about foreign policychallenges.

To take advantage of these congressional strengths, Bush must make con-sultation with Congress a top priority. Sustained consultation fosters mutualtrust between the president and Congress and helps prevent Congress fromtaking foreign policy in different directions. Although consultation doesnot, and should not, ensure congressional support for the president's propos-als, it does help remove some of the disagreement and almost alwaysstrengthens policy.

To consult effectively, Bush must involve both parties in Congress inthe policymaking process. Consultation should take place, to the extentfeasible, prior to administration decisions to ensure administration officialsconsider the perspectives of Congress seriously and respond to congres-sional concerns.


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Mechanisms should be put in place to facilitate consultation. In 1993, Ijoined several other members of the House of Representatives in introduc-ing a bill to establish a consultative group of congressional leaders thatwould meet regularly with the administration's top foreign policy officials.Such a group—made up of the leaders of the House and Senate and thechairmen and ranking members of the main foreign policy committees—would provide a centralized forum for foreign policy discussion and for dis-semination of appropriate information to other members.

BUILD ON AREAS OF AGREEMENT

Despite significant disagreements over tactics, a consensus exists involvingseveral central U.S. principles and objectives. Bush should work to solidifyand expand public support and congressional coalitions around these coreprinciples. From that solid base, he may be able to develop greater backingfor some of his more controversial policies.

Leadership and Engagement: The fundamental principle that shouldguide the president's foreign policy is that U.S. engagement and leadership

are critical to promote U.S. national inter-ests. Most Americans recognize that theUnited States has a special responsibilityand opportunity to make the world a betterand safer place by marshaling the forces ofpeace and progress, extending the benefitsof the global economy, and strengtheningdemocratic ideals and practices. At thesame time, the president must be sensitiveto the limits of our involvement. Engage-ment must be selective, closely tied to ourinterests and opportunities.

r resident Bush'sleadership is themost importantingredient forsuccess.

Partnership: The president should recognize that we must strike theright balance between leadership and partnership. He should follow thesound instincts of Americans, who generally prefer multilateral to unilateralefforts by overwhelming margins. Although we must be willing to act alonewhen our interests demand it, we should strongly support allies and institu-tions that help us bear the burdens of leadership.

Key Alliances: The president should keep our alliances in Europe andAsia—our most important international partnerships—at the center of U.S.foreign policy. In Europe, we should maintain our military leadership andcommitments in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), continueour support for peace and democracy in the Balkans, and encourage effortsto develop a European Security and Defense Initiative and to expand Euro-


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I he presidentcannot leave thesetasks to his advisers;he must bepersonally involved.

pean institutions eastward. In Asia, we should reinvigorate our crucial alli-ance with Japan, deepen our relationship with India, preserve our militaryand political commitments on the Korean Peninsula, and continue our sup-port for a democratic Taiwan.

National Security: Americans broadly agree that we should modernizeand strengthen the world's preeminent military. The U.S. military should beadapted to take on new challenges, such as homeland defense and interna-tional peacekeeping. Our conception of national security should be ex-panded to include the dangers of cyberterrorism, organized crime, disease,and the environment. As more threats to our security go online or into thestratosphere, we should devote more resources to maintaining our superior-ity in information technology and our leader-ship in space.

Global Economy: In the economic sphere,Bush should build upon the broad support forU.S. leadership in promoting internationalprosperity. He should work to address theconcerns many Americans have abouttradeoffs between international trade, laborstandards, and the environment, and heshould tackle the central goal of developing amore stable and resilient global economic sys-tem. Among his top priorities should be re-forming international financial institutions to make them more transparentand accountable; passing fast-track negotiating authority and aggressivelypromoting open trading systems; and paying special attention to improvingthe economies of Latin America, which are so important to our own eco-nomic health. We should also advance—with our allies and international in-stitutions—policies of targeted debt relief and foreign assistance designed tospread the benefits of globalization to the world's poor.

Russia and China: Two of the most controversial foreign policy issues ofthe past decade have been Russia and China, but most policymakers nowagree that the United States should pursue a policy of engagement towardboth countries. Bush should inform Congress and the American people ofthe importance of encouraging positive change in Russia and China and in-tegrating them more deeply into the international community. Within thecontext of engagement, we should press Russia and China on issues of con-cern to us such as proliferation and human rights—prodding them carefullyand with sensitivity in order to avoid fueling resentment.

The Middle East: Most Americans agree that the United States shouldpreserve its position as the key mediator and source of stability in theMiddle East. Following the violence and growing hostility of recent months,


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the U.S. role as main facilitator of peace needs to be reinvigorated. Bush'sfirst goal in the Middle East should be to calm tensions in Israel and the Pal-estinian territories, while working to rebuild strained relations with ourArab allies. We must also maintain our military presence in the Persian Gulf,which is essential to the preservation of peace and the unfettered flow of oil

from the region.The "Western Hemisphere: In our own hemi-

sphere, the president should support the fragileongress can , . , , . . , .

democracies that range trom the Andes to theCaribbean, and move toward a free-trade agree-ment for the Americas. He should attempt todeepen our good relations with our importantneighbors, Mexico and Canada.

Conflict Prevention and Resolution: Ameri-cans are justifiably proud of U.S. efforts to preventand resolve overseas conflicts. Bush should use hispolitical influence to help bring peace to areas of

conflict in the Middle East, South Asia, the Korean Peninsula, the TaiwanStrait, Colombia, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, and Africa. The United Statesshould devote increased attention to conflict prevention. By helping to stopconflicts before they explode, we can save lives and save ourselves the muchgreater resources that we might expend later to intervene militarily.

Democracy, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law: Our foreign policyshould remain firmly embedded in the values that are a great source of U.S.strength. Americans want the United States to advocate and defend democ-racy, human rights, and the rule of law. People around the world look to theUnited States to protect these values when they are threatened. We have aresponsibility and an important interest to ensure that they continue tospread rather than recede.

Cprovide thepresident with awider range ofperspectives.

REDUCE FRICTION ON CONTENTIOUS ISSUES AND HOT SPOTS

The most heated foreign policy debates center around several disputedpolicy questions and countries of concern. Bush must manage these difficultissues wisely and be prepared to deal with a number of potentially explosivesituations.

Intervention: The question of when and how to intervene militarily willbe the toughest foreign policy problem the president will face. The UnitedStates will be called upon to intervene in many areas of the world, but, inmost cases, domestic opinion is likely to be split. The president should ar-ticulate a clear position on intervention and build congressional and publicsupport for it. He should recognize that, although the United States should


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not be the world's peacekeeper, we should intervene when our humanitarianvalues are at stake.

National Missile Defense: NMD will be another difficult issue. Al-though there is broad support for deploying some form of NMD, opinionvaries widely on how to proceed. Bush must move forward with NMD pru-dently, paying careful attention to its possible political, strategic, and finan-cial costs. Our relationships with Russia, China, and many of our allies willbe greatly influenced by our NMD policy.

International Institutions: Few foreign policy issues stir up partisanshipmore than international institutions. The great challenge for the UnitedStates is to manage the tension between our unilateral instincts and ourmultinational commitments. Bush should take the lead by explaining theimportance of international institutions and strengthening public as well ascongressional support for them. He can bolster his case by working to im-prove the capacity of the United Nations (UN) and other institutions todeal with transnational challenges such as terrorism, proliferation, the glo-bal environment, disease, money laundering, il-legal drug trade, and computer fraud. TheUnited States should spearhead a renewed ef-fort to strengthen the UN peacekeeping capac-ity and adapt the International MonetaryFund, World Bank, and World Trade Organiza-tion to meet the challenges of globalization.

Foreign Aid: The U.S. foreign aid budgethas long been a source of heated dispute thathas served our national interests poorly. Thepresident should renew U.S. support for foreign aid by revamping our pro-grams to make them more selective, better coordinated, and marked bystrict standards of accountability and conditionality. Assistance programsshould be focused on strengthening key emerging democracies and address-ing transnational challenges.

Hot Spots: A number of hot spots should immediately concern Bush. Hemust monitor them closely and work to keep dangerous situations from boil-ing over.

In Asia, the president must be prepared to help calm tensions betweenIndia and Pakistan as well as between China and Taiwan. Given the size andmilitary power of the countries involved, Kashmir and the Taiwan Strait aretwo of the most treacherous places in the world. Bush must be attentive tothe fluid situation on the Korean Peninsula, which, despite North Korea'sencouraging opening to the South, remains far from secure. In SoutheastAsia, the president must keep a close eye on Indonesia, as domestic strifethere threatens to tear the nation apart at the seams.

Dush must makeconsultation withthe Congress atop priority.


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In the Middle East, Bush faces the difficult challenges of reducing con-flict between Israel and the Palestinians, developing a new Iraq policy thatcan gain international support, and seeking a political opening with Iran.One of his main goals must be to prevent Iraq and Iran from developingweapons of mass destruction that could threaten stability in the region.

In Europe, the president must work with our NATO allies to maintainthe still-fragile peace in the Balkans. In Africa, hemust be mindful of the conflict in the Congo,Angola, Sierra Leone, and the Sudan. In our ownhemisphere, he must try to bring a greater measureof peace and stability to Colombia, encourage apeaceful transition to democracy in Cuba, andhelp Haiti become more prosperous and secure.

We cannot predict which of these hot spots willbecome crises during the administration, but anumber of them, and others not now anticipated,will likely be at the center of the U.S. foreignpolicy debate at one time or another. The key for

Bush is to develop greater domestic and congressional consensus on ap-proaches to them before they explode. The president should take a hardlook at what U.S. policy toward each hot spot can best advance U.S. inter-ests and gain bipartisan support.

Taking Charge Remains the Key

Developing a bipartisan foreign policy will not be easy under any circum-stances. We should expect rough patches, but, if Bush takes charge of U.S.foreign policy, reaches out and consults with Congress, builds on the areasof broad agreement, and works hard to reduce the friction around conten-tious issues, a strong bipartisan foreign policy could emerge. A foreign policyof unity is essential if the United States is to promote its values and interestseffectively and help to build a safer, freer, and more prosperous world.

The fundamentalprinciple is thatU.Sandare

engagementleadershipcritical.


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