The late great Ronald Reagan once said, “Peace through strength.” Reagan is someone who was very versed in the area of foreign defense policy. Not only did he know a lot about it, but he was also very good at it. Ending the Cold War was his biggest accomplishment while in office, and his advice would definitely be useful to our nation’s leaders today. A strong position on the world stage is better than a weak one, and we should work towards a more dominant position worldwide.

There are often two different positions when it comes to foreign policy: interventionism and isolationism. This is an issue in national politics that is not always split along partisan lines. Some Democrats tend to like isolationism because they fear the negative effects that come along with intervening in other countries’ affairs. The more interventionist part of the Democratic Party claims America needs to spread her ideals to other countries in order to further humanitarian efforts around the globe. When it comes to the Republicans, on the other hand, the more MAGA wing like isolationism because they believe in focusing on America first and dealing with the problems in our own land. The interventionist part of the Republican party would say that the United States is the dominating superpower in the world and that we should act like such. The three latter points of view all have merit, and they all have their time and place in foreign policy.

First, the humanitarian approach is useful when America needs to spread her ideals to countries that are moving in the wrong direction. Take post-World War II Japan as an example. After the most grueling conflict in world history, they were battered and bruised and looking for help. The U.S. went in, wrote their constitution for them, gave them money and offered them protection in exchange for almost nothing. Japan is now one of the most successful countries in the world due to America sowing her ideals into a battered country.

The next approach would be the nationalist Republican perspective. Throughout history, America has tried to follow her isolationist roots, but the Monroe Doctrine always seems to have a delayed echo. We as Americans tend to be overly generous, so generous in fact that we often forget to give some to ourselves. Isolationists argue that before we go about fixing foreign issues, we should mend our own problems. This might sound like a good idea, but the truth is, we will always have our own problems, and we can focus on fixing ourselves while intervening in foreign issues.

This brings about the last point of view, the view that says if there is going to be a global regime, it had better be the United States leading that empire. This is probably the clearest and most useful point of view in my opinion. In any situation, we should be intervening in a way that has America’s best interests in mind. This policy is very much what Ronald Reagan adopted during his time as president. Peace through strength. Since we are the global superpower, our military is unlike any this world has ever seen, and it makes our adversaries scared of us. Thus, the best thing we can do as a country to stay out of war and other conflicts is to threaten war and conflict. 

 One instance of this would be in the years leading up to the Ukraine war. Russia was under constant threat by Donald Trump and his foreign defense team. Odds are that we probably would have never nuked Russia. But, that little possibility that we could bomb them was enough to deter Russia from even thinking about entering Ukraine. This was until the Biden administration took over. Biden said himself that the United States wouldn’t interfere in Ukraine if there was just a “minor incursion.” That gave Putin the green light to start the invasion. America already looked weak after a disaster of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Russia knew that the U.S. wouldn’t do anything about an invasion of Ukraine.

 The war in Ukraine doesn’t seem like it’s coming to an end anytime soon, and with tensions rising in Europe and East Asia, a worldwide conflict hasn’t been this close in a long time. A war on both the east and west with allied and opposing powers is what equals a world war. It is of utmost importance that we try to get back to a position of world peace so that we don’t find ourselves in yet another massive conflict.

 The many different ways to approach foreign defense policy are a topic that will almost surely play a big part in the 2024 election. It is important that we find the best way to approach the situation as the global superpower because just like the other two world wars, we always find our way into the mix. We should, as a nation, look back to the past and observe what worked before. It should be our goal not to cower in the face of conflict but as a wise man once said to achieve “peace through strength.”