I finally got around to reading this strong piece by @Rob_Malley and Philip Gordon. I agree with most of it and think it tackles important ground. But I also think it misses something important. [Thread] 1/ https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1326750142125510657

US foreign policy is and should be at a transition point. There are many reasons why. Some relate to Trump's America First platform. Others are more systemic: an over-extended military, a decline in our relative power, domestic problems that demand attention, etc. 2/

Given where we are, we need to do a lot more than ask a series of discrete policy Qs. Yes, we need to figure out how to withdraw from Afghanistan. And yes, we have to decide what to do on the Iran deal. And how to handle the Israel-Palestine situation. And climate change. 3/

But we also need to figure out--and this is a lot harder--how America will orient itself toward the world. The old model, in which the US claimed a leadership role on virtually all global issues, no matter the direct impact on us, is no longer sustainable or even desirable. 4/

And to reorient ourselves, we have to decide what kind of country we want to be in the world. If we cannot be everywhere all the time, and we cannot make every issue our own, what do we really care about? What are we willing to do and what trade-offs should we make? 5/

For example: How exactly should we restructure our military footprint? Should we stop providing military support to so many fragile govts? Close some military bases? Tell our allies that we will no longer defend them if attacked? Look the other way during atrocities? Etc. etc 6/

These are hard Qs. I don't purport to have the answers to all of them. But we have to grapple with them, if we want to be serious about restructuring our relationship to the world and moving past the two broken models on offer (America First & America the Leader). 7/7