Vivek Ramaswamy rolls out foreign policy agenda based in founding principles

Vivek Ramaswamy rolled out his foreign policy platform early Monday morning in an op-ed for The American Conservative: "A Viable Realism and Revival Doctrine."

In the piece, Ramaswamy draws from the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, citing both the Washington Doctrine and the Monroe Doctrine as he lays out the foundation of his vision for the United States, a vision that puts America First on all fronts.

Ramaswamy looks to Richard Nixon to further flesh out his message by citing the former president’s foreign policy strategy which called for our allies to bear their own security burdens and provide the primary manpower for their own defense, with America serving as defender of last resort.

Addressing US relations with Russia and China, Ramaswamy is clear: 

“Our mistaken posture towards Communist China led us over the last three decades to a new uncomfortable equilibrium, where the United States tenuously remains the world’s great superpower but our two great power rivals—China and Russia—are now working together in a way that threatens us. We must admit our mistakes, recognize our time, and adopt a revised strategic vision for our day aligned with reality rather than wistfully wishing the immediate post-Cold War order back into existence.”

Ramaswamy lays out his vision for steering the US away from current entanglements when he is US president stating, 

“I will reject the bloodthirsty blather of the useful idiots who preach a no-win war in Ukraine that forces our two great power foes ever closer. The longer the war in Ukraine goes on, it becomes ever clearer that there is only one winner: China. I will lead America from moralism to realism by executing the inverse of what Nixon did in 1972: I will go to Moscow in 2025. I will deliver peace in Ukraine under the only terms that should matter to us—terms that put American interests first. The Biden administration has foolishly tried to get Xi to dump Putin. In reality, we should get Putin to dump Xi.”

Ramaswamy takes a hard stance on Chinese involvement and encroachment on US markets stating,  

“It is unacceptably dangerous that so much of our way of life is dependent upon Chinese manufacturing and Taiwanese semiconductors. I will declare economic independence from China. I will demand fairness in our trading relations with them. There will be no more industrial espionage and theft through forced “technology transfers” or other political favors as a condition for U.S. companies expanding into China, or else I will take swift action to punish China and to bar U.S. businesses from engaging in such behaviors. I will incentivize American companies to move supply chains away from China and rebase them in allied markets, especially in our own hemisphere, and I will use trade deals as the main way to do it. The key to so many supply chains is the semiconductor, and here, I will work with American industry to make certain our country achieves semiconductor independence.”

Ramaswamy calls on Taiwan to raise their defense spending and military readiness to acceptable levels in order to receive US partnership in defense.

His view on China is clear:

“As we look at the Western Hemisphere today, we see encroachments that James Monroe would never have tolerated: Chinese spy balloons drifting over our heartland, Chinese spy bases in Cuba, Chinese ports near the Panama Canal. We must re-embrace the Monroe Doctrine and say that America comes First and that our hemisphere is not to be encroached by our adversaries.”

Highlighting India as an integral key to US Indo-Pacific policy, Ramaswamy suggests a partnership that would benefit both countries as well as strengthen defense against Chinese military advances in the region.

Addressing US policy in the Middle East, Ramaswamy outlines a clear and ambitious vision which expands the Abraham Accords peace deals brokered under the Trump administration and advocates for Israel’s integration into the Middle East’s economic and security infrastructure. 

Ramaswamy concludes the op-ed summarizing his vision for a country which takes pride in itself, a country he describes as America First:

“My campaign, at its core, is about reestablishing American national identity. When my two terms have elapsed, Americans will have taken back their country from unelected elites. We will rightly experience national pride again. The better we Americans understand our national identity, the better the world will understand us too. I will be honest with our partners abroad as I will be with our own citizens: the U.S. government’s job is exclusively to represent the interests of Americans.”

In his op-ed for The American Conservative, Vivek Ramaswamy puts forth a vision of US foreign policy enriched by Washington, Monroe and Nixon and fortified with geo-political strategy that reflects current times.

His is a vision that prioritizes American interests and leads the country away from liberal internationalism. It is this recalibration of American interests that Ramaswamy looks to in order to shift the country from “Uncle Sucker” to America First.