Dr. Ted Bromund is the Margaret Thatcher Senior Research Fellow in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom in the Heritage Foundation.
There has been quite a bit of public debate about whether the defense budget should be cut along with the rest of the government as we get our deficit under control. This debate usually begins at the wrong end of the argument. The U.S. spends money on its armed forces in order to fulfill the Constitutionally-mandated requirement to provide for the common defense, and because, like all democracies, it has interests it seeks to advance. These interests are not simply material: because the U.S. was founded on the belief that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are universal, our interests are defined, in part, by our values. Before critics blindly take a hacksaw to the defense budget, they should explain exactly how they propose to defend America’s citizens, interests, and values by spending less, or spell out precisely which of those responsibilities they plan to abandon.
It is important to recognize that the U.S.’s role in the world does not begin with its defense budget. We have a substantial – though historically modest, in comparative terms – defense budget because we have substantial responsibilities. No one can deny that Congress has larded the federal budget with pork, but recognizing that tells us nothing whatsoever about America’s responsibilities, and how much we must spend – efficiently and responsibly – to meet them. The defense budget must be the manifestation of those responsibilities. The closer we get to that ideal, the better off we will be.
As we approach the opening of a new Congress, every incoming representative should understand, and be able to articulate, our fundamental foreign policy priorities, because it is these priorities that should drive the debate on defense, and much more. For foreign policy is not just about what the U.S. does with foreigners. It shapes our security as individuals, affects our well-being as consumers, and defines our future as self-governing citizens. Americans may not always care about foreign policy, but foreign policy cares about them.
The first duty of American foreign policy is to ensure the United States remains a sovereign and independent nation. Nothing was closer to the hearts of the Founding Fathers, and nothing should matter more to us. Sovereignty is a complicated word for a simple idea: it means that we make our own laws, define our own policies, and shape our own future. It means that here, the people rule. It would be a serious mistake to believe that American sovereignty will endure forever simply because it was established in 1776. America’s sovereignty will last just as long as we care for it, and no longer.
