How to Fix a Broken Foreign Policy

U.S. foreign policy is hopelessly outdated, and we’ll never be able to get back on our feet again without a radical revamp that prioritizes our own economy over peddling our influence abroad, argues The Daily Beast’s Leslie H. Gelb in a new essay for Foreign Affairs. Most other countries define their success in terms of GDP and economic growth, Gelb argues, but the U.S. is still overly concerned with measuring power in terms of military might. Foreign policy needs to be recalibrated, then: Gelb emphasizes a focus on reducing national debt, creating jobs, and bucking our dependence on the Middle East’s oil. It’s been done, before too. Gelb cites Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower as examples of leaders whose economic initiatives improved democracy more than any war.