Brent Scowcroft and the Realists

Originally posted March 31, 2015.

James Antle, III, writing in the America Conservative, notes that Republican realists, including Brent Scowcroft, understood “how to use power and respect it’s limits.”

The GOP’s most hawkish national-security hands want to maintain a monopoly on foreign-policy advice for Republican presidents and other elected officials. As the James Bakers age out of government service, they don’t want any younger realists trying to replace him in the GOP.

The purpose of this is two-fold. The hawks don’t want as much competition as they had even during George W. Bush’s second term (by which time the “axis of evil” president was reportedly mocking “the bomber boys”). Benevolent global hegemony begins at home.

To best understand the concept of global hegemony, turn to The Power Problem by my friend and Cato Institute Scholar Chris Preble. Here you will read all about the early nineties development of the Defense Planning Guidance (DPG). Mr. Preble recounts how, even though the early DPG was but a draft, it would one day become “the dominant approach to U.S. foreign policy.” The DPG stipulated that “the United States would be the global hegemon, the undisputed power in all regions of the globe, and would stand prepared to act-preemptively, if necessary, to halt the rise of potential challengers.”

Mr. Preble explains that aids to Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Zalmay Khalilzad and Paul Wolfowitz sketched out the original DPG draft.