What Would Reagan Do? The Case for a Conservative Internationalist Approach to Strategic Competition
Abstract
The American foreign policy establishment can learn much from Ronald Reagan's approach to Strategic Competition (SC) during the Cold Wars waning days. From 1980 to 1988, Reagan employed a well-balanced and disciplined foreign policy that sought to remedy the perceived shortcomings of both Richard Nixon's realist-leaning policies of retrenchment and Jimmy Carter's liberalist tactics of multilateralism and disarmament. Reagan was markedly different from his predecessors in that he was neither a card-carrying balance of power realist nor an international liberalist but instead represented a pragmatic amalgamation of both methodologies. Guided by conservative internationalist principles, Reagan tailored his foreign policy agenda to strengthen American diplomacy, nurture bilateral relationships with key strategic allies and enact cost-imposing strategies on fragile adversary structures. Ex post facto, few argue that Reagan's approach to competing with the Soviet Union was not a significant factor in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 10, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1208174
Entities
People
- John H. Bergmans
Organizations
- Naval War College