Why Hillary Clinton Should Fear Robert Kagan

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Why Hillary Clinton Should Fear Robert Kagan

By Leslie H. Gelb - March 14, 2016

On Monday, National Interest editor Jacob Heilbrunn sat down for a discussion with Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, a former columnist for the New York Times and a former senior State and Defense Department official.

Jacob Heilbrunn: Why should Hillary Clinton fear Robert Kagan?

Leslie H. Gelb: She should fear Robert Kagan because he provides an intellectual basis for her worst instincts. Her instincts are to solve problems by force, to assert American might. And then most of the problems we’re facing now—the lead of our foreign policy should not be force. Force has got to be there, and it's got to play a role, particularly in the issue of terrorism, fighting terrorism. But basically, it’s got to be diplomacy and economics, and organizing alliances for action to tackle these problems. That’s got to come first. And Kagan really doesn’t put much store in organizing coalitions to tackle problems—it’s all about assertion of American might.


JH: In your article in Democracy, you went through Kagan book by book. What was your conclusion about the body of his work? How does it stand up?

LG: I don’t think it stands up well in terms of the substance of foreign policy. I’ll give you one example, but this really is typical in many ways. He denigrates the importance of economics in international politics in the twenty-first century. Where I would say, that month in, month out, the single most potent factor in the power of a nation is its economic strength, and its ability to organize international activity in economics—in trade and investment and so forth. That’s what concerns most leaders and most nations most of the time. And he tosses it away. And specifically, in his last book, he denigrates the importance of China, except for its growing military strength. The economy doesn’t mean anything, even though by some measures it’s the largest economy in the world. And countries all over the world particularly in Asia have to pay attention to China. China is the biggest trading partner for them, and the biggest investor. That matters.

Let me say one thing further. One thing that neocons say, that really rings home, and hits the liberals in the gut, is the liberals’ denigration of military power. It’s gone too far. And it’s as if for liberals—and even for many moderates—military power doesn’t play a role anymore. You look at the failures in Iraq, and Afghanistan, too, and say, “See? Military power doesn’t count. In fact, it leads us astray.” But to deal with the problem of terrorism—especially in Syria, but elsewhere as well—there’s got to be military force. And while our role should not be another land war where we’re in the lead, where it becomes “America’s war”—that’s where the neocons always fall short. They want to turn everything into “America’s war.” But it’s got to involve war. And we’ve got to be the ones to put together a military alliance to fight terrorism in Syria, Iraq, Turkey....

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http://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-hillary-clinton-should-fear-robert-kagan-15492