In the days following the election of Barack Obama, there has been no shortage of advice for the president-elect on how he should shape his foreign policy.
For more words of wisdom, Foreign Policy's David Kenner spoke with Richard Perleonce an insider and later an outspoken critic of the Bush administration. As chairman of a key Defense Department advisory board from 2001 to 2003, Perle emerged as one of the most ardent proponents of the Iraq war. But in a much publicized 2006 interview in Vanity Fair, Perle admitted that he would no longer have supported the invasion and left little doubt that the blame for the huge mistakes ultimately lay with the president himself. Perle spoke with FP about the Bush legacy and how the next administration can avoid the same errors.
Foreign Policy: What gets covered in the campaign isn't always what the president has to deal with when in office. What are some conflicts that could be central to President-elect Obama's foreign-policy legacy?
Richard Perle: North Korea is far from resolved in a stable way. Iran of course has to be dealt with. The obvious objectives are halting their nuclear weapons, their search for nuclear weapons, their program to acquire nuclear weapons, and their involvement in terrorism.
Syria remains very much an unresolved issue. The Syrians are up to no good in Lebanon, up to no good in the region generally, and they make territory available to terrorists. This administration doesnt have a coherent policy with respect to Syria, but the next one will need one.
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Russia. Again, I dont think that this administration has a coherent Russia policy, but the next administration is certainly going to need one. The Russians are sounding very aggressive these days -- provocatively, unnecessarily aggressive.
There's the large question about how we deal with terrorist threats. For all the deficiencies of the Bush administration -- and there have been many -- there hasn't been another large-scale attack in the United States since 9/11. If there should be one, that is an existential threat to Obamas second term for sure.
FP: What lessons from your time in government would you like to pass on to the Obama team during this transition period?
RP: Everything is people. The right people in the right positions produce sound and effective policies. And the wrong people can create enormous difficulty. It's often hard to know -- if you put a senator in a cabinet post, someone who has never managed anything -- is he going to be able to effectively manage a huge bureaucratic institution? Same goes for academics. Teaching in a university is about as different as managing policy in a bureaucracy as anything I can think of. I think driving a tractor probably prepares you as well as a Ph.D. for life in a bureaucracy.
FP: What advice would you give Obama in dealing with a resurgent Russia?
RP: The first thing we need is a strategy, which I think we don't now have, for assisting in the development of pipelines that will diminish the dependence of our allies on Russian gas in particular, but oil and gas. It looks to me like [Russian Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin's strategy is to try to assure that no oil or gas moves without [the Russians] approval. The closer they get to achieving that, the more aggressive they will become. Chances are that Obama will improve on the Bush policy[of which] there is none. It was just: Hope for the best. Say nice things about Putin and hope for the best.
FP: Some have argued that the United States should stop backing Georgia after its conflict with Russia because it could be damaging to U.S.-Russian relations. What is your reaction to that argument?
RP: That would be a mistake of historic proportions. That would be appeasement of the worst kind. Georgia is now democratic, certainly by regional standards, and it's better than that in fact. Theyve done some foolish things, but they have been invaded and beaten up pretty badly. If we now abandon them on the grounds that we should be kissing Putin's behind, that will be very, very damaging. And it will not improve the [U.S.] relationship with Russia.
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