While the cream of the ultra-conservative Christian movement are meeting this morning in Washington to listen to the Republican presidential candidates, Mitt Romney is presenting his foreign policy plan — and team. He is attempting to contrast himself with Barack Obama rather than with his Republican rivals.
He has chosen South Carolina, a state where the primaries are dominated by evangelical Christians (who have, to put it mildly, ‘reservations’ about Mormons) but which also has a strong military presence (the address is taking place at the Citadel, a military college in Charleston). In the 2008 primaries he only achieved fourth position in this state.
The Republicans are just about ready to give up hoping for a miracle candidate. Perry, the governor of Texas, is trying to raise funds and to extricate himself from some early controversy (a rock at his family’s hunting camp painted with the inscription ‘niggerhead’). However, Mitt Romney already has a well-oiled organization behind him.
Today he published a detailed list of his advisers. Among the 22 are many familiar names from the Bush era (Michael Chertoff, former United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA), veterans from the period of the war in Iraq — supporters of a ‘strong’ America, not the neo-conservatives who have flirted with the left (American Enterprise Institute) but rather the ultra ‘Thatcherites’ from the Heritage Foundation (moreover, Danielle Pletka, from the AEI, apparently unconvinced, immediately published a precise series of questions for Romney).
It’s a return to a ‘strong’ America. Mitt Romney is opposing the views of the isolationist movement in his party; there’s no question of ‘retreating into an isolationist shell’ or waving ‘the white flag of surrender.’
His views also contradict those of an American society tired of war (10 years today in Afghanistan). Perhaps Romney thinks that creating an image of a victorious America will pay off at the polls.
Today the candidate adopted an aggressive tone towards ‘manipulative’ China and its currency, towards Pakistan (‘You’ve got to decide if you’re with us or with them’) and towards Iran.
‘If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your president’ he said.
“God did not create this country to be a nation of followers. America is not destined to be one of several equally balanced global powers. America must lead the world, or someone else will.”
Mitt Romney also intends to reverse what he has called the ‘massive cuts’ in Barack Obama’s military budgets. The problem is that the budgets actually are increasing, admittedly more slowly. In 2011, the defense budget was $739 billion. In 2010 it was $721 billion, in 2008 — $696 billion, in 2007 — 626 and in 2005 — 506 billion dollars.
22 advisers may not be enough to do the math…
See below for the list of advisers:
SPECIAL ADVISERS
Cofer Black
Vice President of Blackbird Technologies; Director of the CIA Counter-Terrorism Center (1999-2002); United States Department of State Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism (2002-2004)
Christopher Burnham
Vice Chairman of Deutsche Bank Asset Management; United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Management (2005-2006); United States Under Secretary of State for Management (2001-2005)
Michael Chertoff
Chairman of the Chertoff Group; United States Secretary of Homeland Security (2005-2009); Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (2003-2005)
Eliot Cohen
Director of the Strategic Studies Program at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Counselor to the United States Department of State (2007-2009); Defense Policy Advisory Board Member (2001-2009)
Norm Coleman
Chairman of the Board, American Action Network; Adviser to the Republican Jewish Coalition; United States Senator (R-MN) (2003-2009)
John Danilovich
Member of the Trilantic European Advisory Council; CEO of Millennium Challenge Corporation (2005-2009); Ambassador to Brazil (2004-2005); Ambassador to Costa Rica (2001-2004)
Paula Dobriansky
Senior Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs (2001-2009)
Eric Edelman
Visiting Scholar at School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University; Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (2005-2009); Principal Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs (2001-2003)
Michael Hayden
Principal of the Chertoff Group; Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2006-2009); Director of the National Security Agency (1999-2005)
Kerry Healey
President, Friends of the Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan; Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (2003-2007); Trustee, American University of Afghanistan
Kim Holmes
Vice President of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation; Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (2001-2005)
Robert Joseph
Senior Scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy; Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security (2005-2007)
Robert Kagan
Syndicated Columnist; Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in the Center on United States and Europe; Board Member of the Foreign Policy Initiative
John Lehman
Chairman and Founding Partner, J. F. Lehman & Co.; National Security Advisory Counsel for the Center for Security Policy; Secretary of the Navy (1981-1987); Member of the 9/11 Commission
Walid Phares
Professor of Global Strategies at the National Defense University in Washington; Member of the Advisory Board of the Task Force on Future Terrorism at the Department of Homeland Security (2006-2007)
Pierre Prosper
Partner at Arent Fox; United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (2001-2005); Special Counsel and Policy Adviser to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (1999-2001)
Mitchell Reiss
President of Washington College; Director of Policy Planning at State Department (2001-2005); Special Envoy for Northern Ireland (2005-2007)
Daniel Senor
Partner at Rosemont Capital; Coalition Provisional Authority Spokesman and Senior Advisor (2003-2004); Director and Co-Founder, Foreign Policy Initiative
Jim Talent
Distinguished Fellow at the Heritage Foundation; United States Senator (R-MO) (2002-2007)
Vin Weber
Managing Partner, Clark & Weinstock; Member of the United States House of Representatives (R-MN) (1981-1993)
Richard Williamson
Partner at Winston & Strawn; United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (2004); Special Envoy to Sudan (2008-2009); Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (1988-1989)
Dov Zakheim
Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) (2001-2004); Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Planning and Resources (1985-1987)
WORKING GROUP CHAIRS AND CO-CHAIRS
AFGHANISTAN & PAKISTAN
James Shinn, Co-Chair
Lecturer at Princeton University; Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs (2007-2008)
Ashley Tellis, Co-Chair
Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Senior Adviser to the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs (2003)
AFRICA
Tibor Nagy, Chair
Vice Provost for International Affairs at Texas Tech University; Ambassador to Ethiopia (1999-2002); Ambassador to Guinea (1996-1999)
ASIA-PACIFIC
Evan Feigenbaum, Co-Chair
Executive Director of the Paulson Institute; Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia (2006-2009); Member for East Asia, Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff (2001-2006)
Aaron Friedberg, Co-Chair
Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University; Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs and Director of Policy Planning, Office of the Vice President (2003-2005)
Kent Lucken, Co-Chair
Managing Director at Citigroup Private Bank in Boston; Former U.S. Foreign Service Officer; President of the US-Asia Institute
COUNTER-PROLIFERATION
Eric Edelman, Co-Chair
Visiting Scholar at School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University; Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (2005-2009); Principal Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs (2001-2003)
Robert Joseph, Co-Chair
Senior Scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy; Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security (2005-2007)
Stephen Rademaker, Co-Chair
Principal at Podesta Group; Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation (2002-2006); Policy Director for National Security Affairs and Senior Counsel to Senator Bill Frist (2006-2007)
COUNTER-TERRORISM & INTELLIGENCE
Michael Chertoff, Co-Chair
Chairman of the Chertoff Group; Secretary of Homeland Security (2005-2009); Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (2003-2005)
Michael Hayden, Co-Chair
Principal of the Chertoff Group; Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2006-2009); Director of the National Security Agency (1999-2005)
DEFENSE
John Lehman, Co-Chair
Chairman and Founding Partner, J.F. Lehman & Co.; National Security Advisory Council for the Center for Security Policy; Secretary of the Navy (1981-1987); Member of the 9/11 Commission
Roger Zakheim, Co-Chair
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (2008-2009)
EUROPE
Nile Gardiner, Co-Chair
Director of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom; Foreign Policy Researcher for British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (2000-2002)
Kristen Silverberg, Co-Chair
Chief Operating Officer at Vorbeck Materials; Ambassador to the European Union (2008-2009); Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (2005-2008)
HUMAN RIGHTS
Pierre Prosper, Chair
Partner at Arent Fox; United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (2001-2005); Special Counsel and Policy Adviser to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (1999-2001)
INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE
Grant Aldonas, Co-Chair
Senior Adviser at Center for Strategic and International Studies; Under Secretary for International Trade at the Commerce Department (2001-2005); Member of the Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (2001-2005)
Daniel Runde, Co-Chair
Director of Prosperity and Development at Center for Strategic and International Studies; Former Director of the Office of Global Development Alliances at USAID (2005-2007); Head of Philanthropy Relations at the International Finance Corporation (2007-2010)
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Christopher Burnham, Co-Chair
Vice Chairman Deutsche Bank Asset Management; United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Management (2005-2006); United States Under Secretary of State for Management (2001-2005)
Paula Dobriansky, Co-Chair
Senior Fellow at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government; Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs (2001-2009)
Robert O’Brien, Co-Chair
Partner at Arent Fox; US Alternate Representative to the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly (2005-2006); Former legal officer with the United Nations Security Council (Compensation Commission) (2006-2008)
LATIN AMERICA
Clifford Sobel, Co-Chair
Ambassador to Brazil (2006-2009); Ambassador to the Netherlands (2001-2005); Member United States Holocaust Memorial Council (1994-1998)
Ray Walser, Co-Chair
Senior Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation; Director of the Foreign Service Institute’s Western Hemisphere Area Studies program (2005-2007); 27-year Foreign Service Officer
MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
Mary Beth Long, Co-Chair
Senior Vice President at Neural IQ Government Services; Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (2007-2009)
Meghan O’Sullivan, Co-Chair
Lecturer at Kennedy School of Government; Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan (2004-2007)
Walid Phares, Co-Chair
Professor of Global Strategies at the National Defense University in Washington; Member of the Advisory Board of the Task Force on Future Terrorism at the Department of Homeland Security (2006-2007)
RUSSIA
Leon Aron, Co-Chair
Resident Scholar and Director of Russian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute; Author of Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life and other noted works; Contributed to The New Russian Foreign Policy
William Martel, Co-Chair
Associate Professor of International Security Studies at the Fletcher School, Tufts University
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