While partisan battles dominate headlines, U.S. foreign policy remains strikingly consistent across administrations.
Many realists and non-interventionists were cautiously optimistic about Donald Trump’s second term bringing some modicum of restraint to foreign policy. Thus far, the Trump administration has yet to wrap up the Russo-Ukrainian war, which on the campaign trail he vowed to end in twenty-four hours. Additionally, the Trump administration continues to subsidize and provide diplomatic cover to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza, saber rattle against Iran, and is pivoting, albeit in a ham-fisted manner, towards China.
What accounts for this persistent pattern in American politics?
Geopolitical analyst Brian Berletic likely has the answer to this dilemma. Berletic’s research reveals that foreign policy is not formulated by elected officials but by think tanks ranging from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) to the Heritage Foundation, which are funded by corporate interests. These think tanks create consensus among elites, producing legislative blueprints that Congress rubber stamps with minimal debate. …
The unbroken continuity from President Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia” to Trump’s tariffs highlights a stark reality: U.S. foreign policy is authored in think tank boardrooms, not the Oval Office. Until voters start monitoring think tank white papers as closely as debate night zingers, U.S. foreign policy will remain a play written by and for the unelected.
Of course we knew this, if we were reading some of these white papers the think tanks seem to pump out in an unlimited stream. Yes, they are the ones, in their board rooms, with the aid of their donors are determining the future of foreign police. Then the people like the president, the Secretary of State and the gaggle of squawking congressmen and senators turn it into policy for the state. So we, the people, don’t really have any control over foreign policy, even when we vote, especially if we vote, whether we like it or not. When will we put these think tanks out of business? Shouldn’t they go the way the NGOs should go out the door?