Last week, I got an email from a colleague who teaches at another university. He said he was surprised to see that I had signed a recent open letter that declared U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign policy a failure and concluded that “we need new leadership.” He wanted to know how I could possibly support Trump’s opponent Joe Biden in next month’s election, given that a future Biden administration was likely to be staffed by many of the same people whose handling of foreign policy during previous administrations I had criticized roundly in my last book. He reminded me that some of Biden’s closest advisors had been critical of that work, and not always in the fairest way. How, he wondered, could I possibly welcome the return to those familiar nostrums about the “indispensable” nation and the need for U.S. “leadership” in every region and on every issue, even if expressed in more measured terms?
The writer of that email is an accomplished scholar whose work I respect, and I took his inquiry seriously. Of course, if you’ve been reading this space for the past three-plus years, my opposition to Trump has been clear from day one, and I’ve explained why on several occasions. But my opposition might still seem surprising when you consider the following:
