James W. Pfister: Mike Pompeo’s foreign policy is worrisome

Mike Pompeo has some resume: top of his class at West Point, a military officer, a student at Harvard Law School where he was editor of the Law Review and the Journal of Law and Public Policy, an attorney, a businessman, a representative in Congress, recently director of the CIA and secretary of state. He has written a book on foreign policy: “Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,” 2023. On television, he presents as a rational, conservative and a steadfast candidate for the presidency. His book shows another side of him, I believe.

Arnold Wolfers, years ago, divided foreign policy into possession goals and milieu goals. Possession goals are narrow self-interest; milieu goals are designed to create a stable international system. My thesis is that Pompeo is very heavy on possession goals and light on milieu goals. When applied to hot spots like Taiwan his approach is dangerous.

Key concepts for Pompeo are: America First, sovereignty, drawing lines and defending them “relentlessly,” peace through strength, and deterrence. He contrasts these to appeasement, of course citing Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement to Hitler in 1938, a staple of American foreign policy (that is getting pretty old). His answer to appeasement in Chapter 6 is to “go on the offense.” Regarding Iran, for example, “staying on the offense is the only way forward” (157). He criticized President Joe Biden’s attempt to negotiate regarding nuclear weapons; “looking for new ways to make bad deals” (157).

The America First approach is shown as, “…a bold and unapologetic reassertion of American sovereignty” (159). He sounds the “exceptional nation” theme, going back to the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence. He called those pursuing milieu goals as exercising “eggheaded international relations theory” (160). In criticizing the International Criminal Court and impeding its work, he said: “But to me and President Trump, we were proudly doing our job of putting America first” (180). He said: “The ICC America-hating Eurocrat lawyers love to target Americans” (179). Paranoid?

Regarding participating in international organizations, the goal is not to create milieu stability but: “Does staying with this arrangement … honor our sovereignty? Is it good for the American people?” (174). “Multilateral bodies don’t usually much care for us…” (177). I would suggest building milieu goals may take time but would be good for the American people.

There is much emotion and crudeness in Pompeo’s writing. He refers to Putin as “this wolf” (107). When he had to wait 30 minutes to see Putin, “my irritation turned to aggravation.” He threatened to “get back on the plane and go home.” His spokesman said to the Russian counterpart: “This guy will leave.” Pompeo said of the incident: “…we weren’t afraid to draw the lines for our adversaries — and defend them relentlessly” (180). He described the Russian-China relationship as: “…the bear and the dragon gave each other a sloppy wet kiss” (111). He described the long-time Russian foreign minister as “boorish” (127). Obama’s arms policy was “stupid diplomacy” (133). I do not have room for more. A person with such emotion and crudeness should not be anywhere near the nuclear button.

You can imagine how Pompeo would approach the dangerous situation in Taiwan. He refers to China as an “imperialist bully” (254). He refers to Taiwan as our “dear friend” (154). He refers to “faith leaders” (254) in Taiwan (he is a religious man). He says: “…our Taiwan policy went awry not long after the 1972 reopening with China (with the) fateful decision to adopt the ‘One China Policy’” (255). He speaks of being “infuriated” about our concern with China’s sensitivities, referring to China’s leaders as “stodgy tyrants” (255). He seems to have no empathy with China. He says it is “time to right a historic wrong” (256); that the “United States should grant full recognition to Taiwan…(as) a free people (they) deserve it” (257). This is asking for war. And he decides what the parties deserve?

Pompeo seems ready to have an unthinkable war with China over Taiwan based on his feelings and his values rather than on geopolitical realities and international law. Pompeo wants to draw lines; the problem is he lacks the wisdom on where to draw them.

James W. Pfister, J.D. University of Toledo, Ph.D. University of Michigan (political science), retired after 46 years in the Political Science Department at Eastern Michigan University. He lives at Devils Lake and can be reached at jpfister@emich.edu.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: James Pfister: Mike Pompeo’s foreign policy is worrisome