Romney's Foreign Policy

Although Mitt Romney’s past experience as Governor of Massachusetts lacks any instance of involvement in foreign policy issues, his campaign website hosts a detailed 44 page description of his positions on a wide variety of issues from withdrawing troops from Afghanistan to offering more economic opportunity to Latin American neighbors. The details of Romney’s policy are far too extensive to get involved with on a blog, but it is the principles that define his strategy that will be our focus. Romney illustrates that the foundation of his foreign policy is based upon the belief that the world is a better, safer place with America in charge, “when America is strong, the world is safer. It is only American power—conceived in the broadest terms—that can provide the foundation for an international system that ensures the security and prosperity of the United States and our friends and allies.” In other words, Romney’s foreign policy echoes the related theories of civil religion and American exceptionalism. America was endowed with unique characteristics such as faith in freedom, liberty, and justice that it must do its best to share with the world.

Romney’s platform is based on the principles that American should strive to support global stability and predictability, “advance an international system that is congenial to the institutions of open markets, representative government, and respect for human rights,” use both hard and soft power in order to discourage global violence and instability, work to accomplish goals through multilateral relationships while reserving the right to act in her best interests alone if necessary.

More intriguing is the fact that when stating the importance of “restoring the sinews of American power” he specifically refers to the need for strong values, “Some believe America is declining and no longer possesses the resources or the moral authority to play a leadership role in the world. They do not see an international system undergirded by American values of economic and political freedom as necessarily superior to a world system organized by multilateral organizations like the United Nations. Mitt Romney rejects the philosophy of decline in all of its variants. He believes that a strong America is the best guarantor of peace and the best patron of liberty the world has ever known. The “last best hope of earth” was what Abraham Lincoln called our country. Mitt Romney believes in fulfilling the promise of Lincoln’s words and will defend America abroad in word and in deed.” Clearly civil religion is present in multiple areas throughout Romney’s foreign policy agenda.

check our Romney's positions in more detail on his website: http://www.mittromney.com/blogs/mitts-view/2011/10/fact-sheet-mitt-romneys-strategy-ensure-american-century