For Immediate Release
Contact: Karin Kullman Freedman/John Bray: (202) 547-0001

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A group of leading foreign affairs and defense specialists, including analysts from the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), today unveiled a new agenda for national security that updates the Democratic Party's tradition of tough-minded internationalism.

In "Progressive Internationalism: A Democratic National Security Strategy," the group assesses the Bush administration's growing list of foreign policy failures as well the mounting political and economic costs of its unilateral diplomacy. "Instead of mobilizing our friends and isolating our enemies, this administration is isolating the United States from the rest of the world, squandering the good will and alliances buildup over decades by successive U.S. leaders. American military strength is at an all-time high but our moral authority around the world is at an all-time low," the document states.

Noting that criticism of the Bush administration alone will not allay public doubts about Democrats' willingness to pursue the tough security policies today's world demands, the authors also propose a progressive alternative for making Americans safer and restoring respect around the world for U.S. global leadership.

"We begin by reaffirming the Democratic Party's commitment to progressive internationalism -- the belief that America can best defend itself by building a world safe for individual liberty and democracy," the document states. "The way to keep America safe and strong is not to impose our will on others or pursue a narrow, selfish nationalism that betrays our best values, but to lead the world toward political and economic freedom."

The group consists of 15 experienced analysts, many of whom served in high government posts in the 1990s or have advised past administrations. The authors* of Progressive Internationalism are:

Ronald D. Asmus, German Marshall Fund of the U.S.
James R. Blaker, Progressive Policy Institute
Lael Brainard, Brookings Institution
Kurt Campbell, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Gregory Craig, Williams & Connolly
Larry Diamond, Hoover Institution
Michele A. Flournoy, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Philip H. Gordon, Brookings Institution
Edward Gresser, Progressive Policy Institute
Bob Kerrey, New School University
Will Marshall, Progressive Policy Institute
Michael McFaul, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Steven J. Nider, Progressive Policy Institute
Kenneth M. Pollack, Saban Center on Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution
Jeremy Rosner, Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner Research Inc.

The statement also takes issue with left-wing activists who routinely call for deep cuts in military spending, reflexively oppose the use of force, and embrace an anti-trade, anti-globalization agenda that would damage the U.S. economy and condemn developing nations to perpetual poverty. "However troubling the Bush record, the pacifist and protectionist left offers no credible alternative," according to the statement.

"Progressive internationalism occupies the vital center between the neo-imperial right and the non-interventionist left, between a view that assumes that our might always makes us right and one that assumes that because America is strong it must be wrong."

The strategy of progressive internationalism encompasses six core priorities:

• Advance democracy abroad to make us safer at home: Arguing that America's power should serve our democratic ideals, the authors call for a new push for political and economic reforms in the greater Middle East, which has emerged as the world's most unstable and dangerous region. Their strategy for encouraging forces of reform and modernization in the region includes a new Middle East Trade Initiative to spur growth and development, new aid for governments that embrace openness and accountability, and a crash program to reduce America's dependence on oil.
• Prevent terrorists and dangerous regimes from acquiring weapons of mass destruction: If during the Cold War we faced an arms race to build weapons, we are now in a race to keep them out of the wrong hands. Democrats would pursue a collective approach in dealing with the dangerous situation in North Korea by engaging the United Nations and North Korea's neighbors; and would focus on preventing the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) through expansion of the successful Nunn-Lugar program, rather than relying on military preemption of the use of WMD.
• Plug gaps in homeland defense: Democrats would bring an overdue sense of urgency to defending our homeland by creating America's first-ever domestic intelligence organization; offering state and local leaders useful guidance based on genuine threat assessment; merging terrorist watch lists and ensuring information sharing among law enforcement agencies; and by investing in resources to equip police, fire fighters and public health officials with the tools needed to protect their communities.
• Transform the U.S. military and use it more effectively: Democrats would make room for investments to modernize and sustain America's military superiority into the future by dismantling obsolete Cold War infrastructure, working toward assuring the "information dominance" clearly necessary in dealing with today's threats, and making smarter use of American military power. They would also press for an expanded NATO peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, and maintain a robust military presence in Iraq until security and stability have been achieved.
• Reinvigorate America's strategic alliances: Democratic presidents have made America's strategic alliances a cornerstone of their foreign policy. Democrats still believe that our alliances are as important as ever. They intend not to abandon them, but to reorient them to new challenges by strengthening and reforming international institutions such as NATO, the United Nations, the international financial institutions, and the World Trade Organization.
• Restore American global economic leadership: Democrats would revive U.S. leadership in the global economy by restoring the dynamism of the American economy through a rejection of the Bush administration's policies of fiscal recklessness; offering a fundamentally new approach to trade and economic relations with the Muslim world; renewing and expanding trade agreements and negotiations; and encouraging reform of multilateral lending institutions to tackle corruption and poverty more vigorously.

"In the coming national election, Democrats must offer the American people a clear choice on national security," the authors conclude. "We are confident that a new Democratic strategy, grounded in the party's tradition of muscular internationalism, can keep Americans safer than Republicans' go-it-alone policy, which has alienated our natural allies and overstretched our resources.... A new progressive internationalism can point the way."

* The views expressed in the document released today are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, the authors' affiliations.