Foreign Policy Reform: A Better Global Neighborhood

Now more than ever, the American public demands answers for the endless wars the United States wages and condones around the world. It's time to end the wanton violence carried out in the interests of an elite who will never see combat, at a cost only working families are made to pay. We need a foreign policy that leads with diplomacy, invests in the patient work of negotiation and coalition-building, and treats military force as a last resort rather than a first instinct.

Too many wars have been started on the whim of presidents who promised financial accountability and peace, and delivered insider corruption and endless conflict. The illegal war in Iran cost $11.3 billion in its first six days alone, and, even worse, the lives of 13 servicemembers with hundreds more wounded. We cannot afford this price in taxpayer dollars or American lives. We cannot let the semantic shell game of preemptive strikes derail the work of domestic security and global stability. Congress must write itself back into authority by requiring congressional approval for all new wars abroad and mandatory investigations for any use of military force outside of congressionally sanctioned war. We must usher in a new day when our brave enlisted need not fear being expended in sudden deployment, and their families need not be left to ask why. And the American people, who fund these wars with their taxes and send their sons and daughters to fight them, deserve a voice in whether they are waged at all.

We cannot stand idly by while American wealth advances interests antithetical to American ideals. This means ensuring all military aid, to every recipient, complies fully with national and international law. Congress must strictly enforce the Leahy Laws, deepen our cooperation with UN humanitarian organizations, and condition all foreign military support, regardless of the recipient, on the democratic principles enshrined in our founding documents.

Congress must renew its commitment to USAID and to American humanitarian support worldwide. By restoring USAID and the other agencies dedicated to that mission, and by prohibiting the Executive from unilaterally shuttering congressionally established bureaucracies, we can advance American interests and save lives around the world. By contributing the funds and expertise necessary for infrastructure development and rebuilding abroad, America can assert its global role through constructive goodwill while at the same time build stronger and more stable relations with countries and populations throughout the developing world.

The Trump Administration has shown flagrant disregard for some of our oldest and most critical alliances. In Congress, I will end the legislative bench-sitting that has paved the way for the reckless and failed negotiations of a government that cannot see past the greed and private interests of its largest donors. We must work in lockstep with NATO, the European Union, the signatories of the Paris Agreement, the OECD, and the other international institutions that form the backbone of a more democratic and cooperative global order. America cannot lead from behind. That is why I will introduce legislation requiring the Executive to seek congressional approval before withdrawing from any international organization. We need to prove to our allies that we are reliable, dependable and consistent, and we need to restore the legislature as the meeting ground between outside institutions and the American people, rather than ceding that role to an increasingly opaque Oval Office.

We must work alongside democratic advocates around the world to promote democracy everywhere, rather than toppling leaders whose absences only give rise to new and more ferocious powers. In Iran as in Venezuela, the removal of one bad actor became the stepping stone for another, and the courageous advocates we claimed to support are no closer to remaking their nations in the image of their own people. I am committed to supporting foreign engagements that prioritize diplomatic state-building, rather than aggressive bombing campaigns that are needlessly lethal, ruinously expensive, and counterproductive to the very goals they claim to advance.