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March 5, 2008
Foreign Policy Experience
What exactly does "foreign policy experience" mean? I really don't know. Do you have foreign policy experience if you sat on an Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Senate? Or do you have foreign policy experience if you were an ambassador to Costa Rica? Or if you wrote a book about a European war?
The point I am trying to make here is that this is a very complicated. I am not so sure that sitting on a committee or even traveling around the world on some trade commission junket makes you better able to make decisions. I would contend that spending time in Europe does not necessarily prepare you for solving a crisis in South America, or in SE Asia. Those cultures are very different, with distinct problems and ways of looking at the world. I don't think anyone is really knowledgeable enough to say they are really experienced to solve the problems of the world.
There are so many countries, with so many issues, cultures, religions, races, and everything else that exists, that no one person can really know "foreign policy". Perhaps what one should ask is whether an individual running for President has the strength and humility to know how much and little he or she actually knows about a situation. Then, will that person bring in the right experts for advice, and god forbid, actually listen to what they have to say. I would contend that is much more important.
Posted by Chip Spear at March 5, 2008 9:43 PM