Post-Pandemic Foreign Policy

The challenge can be summed up in two words: stopping China.

COVID-19 hasn’t finished wreaking havoc on the world. Its physical, economic, and political effects will linger and affect the world for years to come. Because those effects are changing the world, we should begin to analyze how our foreign policy should deal with them. The COVID-19 pandemic is a historic event that is already shifting regional and global balances of power. As we’ll see in a moment, it may weaken or destroy alliances. It may also slow some of our adversaries’ aggression. What follows is an overview of what could, and arguably should, be America’s goals and methods of conducting foreign policy over the next four years. It is based on the presumption that President Trump is reelected. If he is not, we can expect that all we consider here will be ignored or even strenuously opposed. Subscribers, click here to read the full magazine. Not a subscriber? Click here to become a Patriot member today and receive access to The American Spectator in print and online! After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, our foreign policy inevitably tilted to emphasize defense policy over economic policy in roughly an 80-20 ratio. During the next four years, the balance will be changed to roughly a 50-50 ratio. We first have to engineer our economy’s recovery and then apply its force in America’s interests. The U.S. economy has been the world’s principal engine of freedom since about 1942. Though damaged severely by the pandemic, there is no reason to doubt that our economy is still stronger than any other nation’s. Unless we suffer a second round of the pandemic, our economy will recover quickly, probably before the year is out.

The damage to Europe is more severe, and will be longer-lasting, than the damage America has suffered. The European Union (the members of which are nearly all members of NATO) has agreed on an initial economic stimulus, but they cannot agree on solutions to the EU’s underlying problems. The EU — especially nations such as Italy, Spain, ...