Sen. Kaine: U.S. needs new strategy for engaging with rest of the world
It's long past time, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said Friday, for the United States to develop a new doctrine for engaging with the rest of world.
After a 14-year war on terror that has spread the nation's military too thin, Kaine said the U.S. needs a more specific diplomatic and military strategy for dealing in different ways with the world's democracies, authoritarian regimes and non-state terrorist groups.
President Barack Obama has been following a "reaction doctrine" of confronting terrorism and other problems as they emerge and a strategy of "don't do stupid stuff," Kaine said during an interview with The Virginian-Pilot's editorial board.
At the same time, Congress, as a body, has irresponsibly avoided debating and voting on U.S. military actions abroad, he said.
The Virginia Democrat has questioned Obama's constitutional authority to launch attacks on the Islamic State terrorists, and he has frequently berated Congress for failing to consider a war authorization bill.
After the 9/11 attack, the U.S. adopted a "War on Terror" doctrine, but that has proven too limited when confronting world events because it undersells the use of diplomacy, trade and humanitarian assistance, Kaine said.
Noting this week's decision by Obama to send U.S. troops to Cameroon in central Africa to help track Boko Haram militants, Kaine said, "Everything is getting so stretched and attenuated."
"I mean, we are engaging in military activity in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and now Cameroon. All against non-state criminal actors."
It's time to develop a clearer strategy that can be agreed upon by the White House and Congress, said Kaine, a member of the Senate's Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees.
He noted that with the rise of Soviet aggression after World War II, President Harry Truman announced in 1947 what became the Truman Doctrine: the principle that the U.S. would support countries or people threatened by the Soviet Union or communists. It was a two-polar view of the world, he said.
Today, he argues, the U.S. needs to follow a principle that accepts we live in a tri-polar world.
"You basically have democracies, authoritarians and non-states," he said. "Too often we're worrying about trouble spots and taking the democracies for granted."
The U.S. has to "shore up" democratic countries, he said.
The authoritarian regimes - including China, Iran, Russia and North Korea - need to be "skillfully challenged," Kaine said. "That means sometimes cooperate, sometimes compete, sometimes confront."
As for the non-state groups, including al-Qaida, the Islamic State and international drug cartels, "the strategy has to be to defeat them."
"They threaten the post-World War II architecture of sovereignty and respect for sovereignty," Kaine said. "This is one area where there is common ground between democracies and authoritarians."
Kaine acknowledged that most in Congress aren't wrestling with the issue but predicted the 2016 presidential election will require candidates to explain their vision of the world.
In the meantime, he wants the president to work with Congress to reassess how the U.S. should handle its fight against non-state groups.
"Before he leaves office, at a minimum, he ought to put a proposal on the table," Kaine said. "If Congress doesn't do anything with it, then you can blame us."
