On Lawfare Daniel Byman examines the coming challenges for the foreign policy community, but I found his preamble quite interesting for what it said about President Obama – and the implications for the foreign policy community:
A new day, a new president, a new set of challenges for the foreign policy establishment.
It’s hard to be a member of the foreign policy establishment. President George W. Bush challenged many of the establishment’s basic premises with his emphasis on preemption and Texas-tough rhetoric. Many of us breathed a sigh of relief when Obama came in. Surely the cerebral University of Chicago law professor, with his conciliatory rhetoric and embrace of alliances, would realize our worth. Yet he too quickly tired of us, his team derisively referring to think tanks and policy intellectuals as “the blob.”
And now there is Trump. More than any candidate in my memory, he has challenged basic foreign policy assumptions and dismissed the value of traditional expertise. Some of his Cabinet picks bring considerable experience to the job, but many are relative newcomers with little track record as policymakers.
It’s hard to be part of a scorned community, yes. While I wouldn’t get too het up about disdain from Bush or Trump, the fact that Obama walked away suggests a problem – either in conclusions or in communications. He doesn’t address the topic further, sadly, as Trump is his focus.
