Is a Better World Possible Without US Military Force?

Under President Obama, the United States adopted a “do no harm” foreign policy in contrast to Bush-era military interventionism. Shadi Hamid in The Atlantic describes this as a Leftist tendency to avoid intervention, allowing other countries to exercise agency without American interference. He argues the policy has not led to a safer and more just world. For instance, Obama has maintained a non-intervention policy in Syria although the civil war has left more than 500,000 dead and displaced millions. Policies that resist intervening enable murderous regimes. Hamid cautions that “that the most powerful nation in the world can[not] ever be truly ‘neutral’ in foreign conflicts and “The fiction of neutrality is growing more dangerous, as we enter a period of resurgent authoritarianism, anti-refugee incitement, and routine mass killing.” The world, complicated and interconnected, depends on global cooperation. Countries hoping to be a force for good cannot apply rigid standards, and Hamid concludes “power – still, for now, preeminent – can be used for better, more moral ends.” – YaleGlobal