The USA ensures order in the world – that was the conviction of the Republicans. But now the party is propagating global withdrawal. With dangerous consequences for Europe.
Just 20 years ago, the Republicans in particular were known for their foreign policy hardliners. The so-called hawks pleaded more than other politicians for tough action in the world – including military operations. This is one of the reasons why the USA, under its then President George W. Bush, began the eight-year-long, brutal and also illegal war in Iraq in 2003, which led to the overthrow of the dictator Saddam Hussein.
It was a time when the ideology of the so-called neoconservatives was still able to gain a majority. At least in the US. In Germany, on the other hand, the American invasion drove people onto the streets. Gerhard Schröder’s no to the looming Iraq war in 2002 helped him to be re-elected. Only a few years later did the Democrat Barack Obama move into the White House in the increasingly war-weary USA because he promised to withdraw US troops from Iraq.
Hawks become doves of peace
20 years later, in the middle of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the roles of Republicans and Democrats seem to have been swapped, at least at first glance. Even though Joe Biden has withdrawn from Afghanistan and is not waging a war of aggression, the democratic president is doing almost everything to provide military aid to the invaded Ukraine and thus secure US influence in Europe and globally against Russia and China.
On the other side are Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, currently the most promising contenders for the Republican presidential nomination. They have little in common with the former neoconservatives, the “neocons”. They would like to end all support for Ukraine immediately.
Their argument: the war in Ukraine is not in the US’s sphere of interest. DeSantis even recently called it a mere “territorial conflict.” Trump has been warning of Biden as a warmonger leading the US into a third world war for months. Only he himself is still able to avert this.
Isolationism as bait for the voters
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are not alone in their stance. Many other senior Republicans have expressed similar sentiments. The reason they give is that they represent America’s true national interests, unlike the Democrats who are allegedly fomenting the war. At second glance, however, the calculus with which the powerful new Republicans present themselves as supposed peacemakers becomes clear.
After decades of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf, Vietnam and Korea, the United States is very tired of getting involved in foreign policy and, above all, militarily. Republicans like DeSantis or Trump build on this potential voter. However, they do the opposite. Just as radically as the hawks once called for military action, they now seem to reject any effort to protect foreign policy interests.
Today, no one wants to be seen as a neoconservative among the Republicans. “Neocon” has even become a dirty word. Some Republicans are deliberately stoking fears that the Ukrainian president would happily spill American blood in defense of his country. For his part, Democratic President Joe Biden has always insisted that he would not send US troops into a war with Russia.
While the Republicans were once ruled by the hawks, today it is these so-called isolationists. Critics of this development in their own party fear that if these isolationist forces prevail in the long term and make it into the White House, that would in a way also be the end of the United States as a world power. That would be a huge problem for Europe. The states of the old continent have probably not been as dependent on the transatlantic alliance as they are today since the end of the Cold War.
Donald Trump falsifies Ronald Reagan
Just how much today’s leaders of the Republican party differ from the past becomes clear with a simple comparison: Donald Trump copied his political battle cry “Make America Great Again” from one of the most respected Republican US presidents of all people. As early as 1980, Ronald Reagan used the slogan “Let’s make America great again” in his 1980 presidential campaign.
