Trump's U.N. Speech & Our Values

This week, President Trump gave his first address to the United Nations General Assembly. While some commentators praised what they considered a strong speech, it reflected again the president’s troubling effort to decouple U.S. foreign policy from our nation’s most fundamental values. He again advocated for what he calls an “America First” policy, which emphasizes a transactional view of U.S. engagement with the world, ostensibly centered around security and economic prosperity, but disassociated with democratic ideals. The problem with this approach is that our ideals are as inseparable from our interests as our interests are from our foreign policy.

It is a mistake to believe that the core source of America’s strength is its military or economic power. Rather, those are the results of our commitment, however imperfect, to our nation’s foundational principles, namely the liberty and equality of all. These ideals have fueled our economic, military, and diplomatic power since the Founders declared our independence in 1776. The more we have lived by them, the more powerful our nation has become. Conversely, when we’ve turned our back on them, our security, prosperity, and influence has suffered.

Unfortunately, President Trump has never demonstrated an understanding of this. Instead, he has sought to undermine these ideals, as well as the norms and institutions built upon them, during his first several months in office.

In his speech, President Trump repeatedly emphasized the concept of sovereignty, an important principle of international affairs that protects nations’ autonomy over their own territories. Few would argue against the sanctity of national sovereignty, which has helped prevent another great war since WWII. But many of the world’s most oppressive regimes, including those in control of Syria, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and Russia, now exploit the concept to insulate themselves from international calls for human rights, rule of law, and democracy. They pervert the concept of sovereignty for the protection and narrow interests of their oppressive regimes, while their people demand basic rights and representation.

According to the president, members of the United Nations have two paramount responsibilities:

to “respect the interests of their own people” and “the rights of every other sovereign nation.”

With this statement, the president suggests that people only have interests — presumably defined by their leaders — while nations have rights. To some, this difference may seem inconsequential, but it is music to the ears of dictators, who are eager to dispense with the troublesome notion of universal human rights, and all too happy to define the interests of their people for them.

When President Trump claims that

“strong, sovereign nations let diverse countries with different values…work side by side on the basis of mutual respect,”

he is reminding authoritarian and other governments that, so long as they refrain from criticizing his excesses, he will gladly do the same for theirs, all under the guise of “different values.” This is not only inconsistent with the rights enjoyed by the American people; it is a break with our democratic partners around the world, and a betrayal of those living under oppressive regimes who have long looked to the United States as a beacon of hope.

While it is certainly true that different countries and cultures have different values that should be accommodated, treating the inherent liberty and equality of all as negotiable and subject to dictators’ whims makes the world less stable and jeopardizes our national security. It also weakens our commitment to our own liberty, leaving us more vulnerable to corrupt or abusive leaders here at home.

There are many contrasting ideas in America about what philosophy should drive our foreign policy. Some favor a non-interventionist, or isolationist, approach while others favor a foreign policy that is more engaged in defending and promoting U.S. interests abroad. This is a policy issue that citizens and leaders should certainly debate, and there is room for intelligent, patriotic Americans to disagree. However, the bright line we must never cross is abandoning our nation’s foundational ideals in either domestic or foreign policy-making. Doing so would be a betrayal of our own most precious and natural rights and so we must all be engaged advocates for them in whichever way our talents and capacity allow.

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