Foreign Policy Principles for the Next Administration
Restoring America’s standing in the world must surely rank as the next administration’s foremost priority. Unfortunately, the three remaining presidential candidates have yet to articulate a clear strategy for achieving this (admittedly daunting) objective. Whoever prevails in November should ground their strategy in seven principles and policies. I do not regard the first three as particularly controversial — the experiences of the past decade or so yield them quite naturally — and, as such, I present them without comment:
Demeaning Human Suffering
In 2003, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals likened the slaughter of animals to the Holocaust. While this remark was particularly egregious, it was consistent with PETA’s longstanding insolence. Fifteen years earlier, the organization’s executive director stated, “Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it.”
Reflections on Activism
As we reflect on last week's tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., we should recall the words of Gunnar Jahn, who presented him with the Nobel Prize in 1964: "It was not because he led a racial minority in [its] struggle for equality that Martin Luther King achieved fame. Many others have done the same, and their names have been forgotten." Chief among these other catalysts for change was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a group that offers us great insight into our own capacity as agents of change. Were it not for the SNCC's sustained efforts, "I Have a Dream" would have been little more than poetry on paper.