Rasmussen: Isolationism Will Not Make the United States Safer and More Prosperous

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen shakes hands with an Afghan commando service member at Camp Morehead, Afghanistan, April 12. (Photo by Maitre Christian Valverde, French Navy, ISAF Public Affairs Office)

The former Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen writes:

Barely had I been seated before Vladimir Putin told me that NATO—the organization that I then headed—no longer had any purpose and should be disbanded. “After the end of the Cold War, we dissolved the Warsaw Pact,” he said. “Similarly, you should dissolve NATO. That is a relic from the Cold War.”

From my former positions as prime minister of Denmark and secretary-general of NATO, I know how important American leadership is. We desperately need a U.S. president who is able and willing to lead the free world and counter autocrats like President Putin.

The world needs such a policeman….

The Middle East is torn by war. In North Africa, Libya has collapsed. …

Isolationism will not make the U.S. and other freedom-loving countries safer and more prosperous. …

Mr. Rasmussen, a former prime minister of Denmark and a former secretary-general of NATO, is the author of The Will to Lead—America’s Indispensable Role in the Global Fight For Freedom, out this month from HarperCollins/Broadside Books.

The flip side to this argument is, of course, that the U.S. does not need to be the world’s policeman. In defense of my position, I offer Cato Institute Chris Preble’s book, The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free.