Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio.) believes that American neoconservatives have caused 40 years of "disasters" in the Middle East. But he's doubling down on exactly the vision they've had all along: an alliance of Israel and Sunni Muslim–led states, backed by U.S. military power, to "police" the region.
At a Thursday conference hosted by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft—where I worked as a researcher several years ago—and The American Conservative, the senator laid out his idea of a "foreign policy for the middle class." Vance, who is on Donald Trump's shortlist for vice president, attacked the "tired old slogans" that have become consensus in Washington and called for a more "realist" approach.
