2008: Lugar’s Words of Wisdom

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) gave an insightful speech at National Defense University yesterday intended to lay out the foreign policy agenda for the next president. Of course, at this stage of the campaign we should expect something this interesting to go largely ignored—and the coverage it has garnered has mainly sought to extrapolate an endorsement, which Lugar studiously avoided. The remarks focus on how the next president can recalibrate U.S. foreign policy to a less reactive and more forward-thinking posture. While Lugar doesn’t mention democracy in the Middle East, I’m going to extrapolate my own endorsement based on the following quote:

“If the United States is to remain secure and prosperous it must seek to shape the diplomatic and economic conditions in the world. We should be asking how do we change the rules of the game in ways that benefit a stable global order based on commerce, open borders, secure sea and air routes, adequate food and energy supplies, and the free flow of information? How do we organize the world and raise costs for those pursuing a course inimical to our interests? How do we avoid repeatedly being confronted with nothing but bad options – one of which usually is military force?”