By Daniel DePetris
There is an age-old dogma in the US foreign policy establishment: when America pulls back, chaos ensues. Like an anti-inflammatory that keeps arthritis under control, Washington’s presence in this or that region keeps enemies cowed, partners reassured, and the barbarians at the gates.
Of course, just because an argument is popular doesn’t mean it’s accurate. There are several problems with the “America must be everywhere, at all times” line of thinking, the most poignant of which is that it turns the US military into an agency of global rent-a-cops. Primacy is a highly intensive foreign policy strategy with consequences large and small, from an overworked military and ballooning defense budgets to what my colleague Benjamin Denison calls “a form of self-entrapment,” where forward deployments to one region lead to bigger interventions in another. The 2011 NATO air campaign in Libya, for example, was easier to wage due to the constellation of US bases in Europe.
The “America or chaos” theory is also wrong on the merits. The US can, in fact, make critical choices about where to deploy its troops and devote diplomatic resources without having to worry about creating regional tremors. In fact, making those choices could even sow the seeds of stability.
This piece was originally published in Spectator on May 17, 2022. Read more HERE.