A VALUES-CENTERED FOREIGN POLICY & NATIONAL SECURITY

Why Alan Cares

Alan is the son of immigrants. It was his dad, an immigrant from Iran, who taught him about the world. As a global citizen Alan’s father helped Alan learn about regimes around the world, including Iran and its internal struggles with peace and democracy. It was the actions of the British government and CIA which overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953, and the consequence to peace was that Iran eventually fell to a Revolution after its time under the Shah. Alan’s father always told him growing up that America’s greatest strength are our ideals of freedom, equality of opportunity, democracy and most importantly, justice, for all. When we stray from those ideals, as in overthrowing Dr. Mossadegh, or supporting other dictators around the world, America gets off track and it always comes back to haunt us. Alan’s father taught him to love America enough to fight for its ideals.

Alan has traveled across the world to more than 40 countries meeting with service leaders, social entrepreneurs, civic activists, government officials, business leaders, and young people in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern and Western Europe, and North and South America. What he learned from these travels is that people want the same things: freedom and democracy, good health, a better life for their children, access to high quality education, and a chance to reach their full potential.

Guiding Principles

The global issues we confront—climate change, clean energy, nuclear proliferation, the scarcity of basic resources, extreme poverty, failing states, pandemics, terrorism—are deeply interrelated. They cannot be solved by military means alone, nor by unilateralism. The United States needs to continue to lead and work in concert with our allies. The United States must adopt a new Grand Strategy that emphasizes the importance of using all aspects of national power— economic, military, political and our principles, founding ideals and our citizens—to meet our global objectives.

The world has long been—and will continue to be—inspired by American ideals. Each American, who travels abroad, has the potential to be an ambassador who can communicate those ideals to the rest of the world. They also can bring valuable global perspectives back home with them.

Many of the international institutions that guide our global system—the United Nations, NATO, the World Bank, and IMF—date from the period immediately following World War II. We need to reform and update them by introducing a culture of entrepreneurial, innovative thinking that allows us to better respond to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century. We also need a similar period of creative thinking to develop new institutions that meet the times we live in.

We must confront the challenge of climate change and recognize it as an existential threat to our very life on the planet. It is an environmental issue, an economic issue, an energy issue and a national security issue. It also represents an opportunity to embrace clean energy, free ourselves permanently from foreign, mid-east oil and launch a new, green jobs revolution that will drive our economic prosperity. (see the Climate Change Policy section for more details on Alan’s Action Plan for this critical issue)

We must embrace the ideal of a world free of nuclear weapons and develop a global system to monitor and stop all other entities (states and non state actors) from acquiring them.

The Facts

  • Article I, Section 8 of the U.S Constitution gives the power to declare war to Congress, not the President or any other body
  • The Trump administration proposed a $740 Billion Defense and National Security budget for the 2020 fiscal year
  • The United States spends more on defense than the next seven countries combined
  • According to a Brown University study, the current cost of wars in the Middle East since 2001 (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria) is roughly $6.4 Trillion over 19 years. That’s $15.8 billion dollars to the Fourth District alone, $135 billion to the entire Commonwealth, and $19,365 for every individual person
  • The Department of Defense reported 7,045 military deaths and 53,224 wounded soldiers since the Iraq war. That is an unacceptably high number of sacrifices for this country for a war that never should have been launched and should have ended much sooner

ALAN'S ACTION PLAN

Alan will work hard to rebuild our Alliances and foster global cooperation. Alan believes that the major threats to our national security — climate change, nuclear proliferation, pandemics, extreme poverty, failing states and terrorism — all require global cooperation and solutions. The COVID-19 crisis is a stark reminder of this. He will work to rebuild our alliances and advocate for new global institutions, strategies and cooperation to confront these challenges. For example, Alan supports creating a Global Pandemic Council both to confront the current COVID-19 crisis and to prepare for and better deal with future pandemic threats.

Alan will work hard to bring our troops home. We must end the forever wars that are promoted by an outdated neo-conservative ideology at the expense of peace and thousands of brave American lives. Our troops deserve to come home and continue their lives and families, and to have a VA and government system that will support them for the rest of their lives.

Alan believes in a human-centered immigration and refugee policy. We cannot cage children in inhumane facilities, and we need to reform ICE before more lives are destroyed. America must remain the beacon of hope for people across the world. We need common-sense security measures, instead of blanket bans, to keep our country safe while offering the American Dream to those who need it most.

Alan will push funding for diplomacy before violence. Our State Department and USAID is gutted today because we are prioritizing military armament over negotiation and peace. Empty posts in the Administration and funding cuts, need to be reversed. Our investments in foreign aid are badly needed by our developing partners. That sends a message to our partners across the world that we are here for them, and to the people that they can count on America’s support.

Alan will work to restart a path to cooperation and accountability in the Middle East. That means 1) working with the P5 + 1 to return to negotiation with Iran on the Nuclear Deal to avoid Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon and a devastating escalation in the Middle East, 2) supporting and cooperating with our important partner, Israel, to help protect its citizens 3) pursuing a peaceful two-state solution and recognizing the humanitarian rights and needs of the Palestinian people, 4) holding Saudi Arabia and other partners accountable for gross human rights violations and mass murders in wars which we currently sell them weapons for, and 5) reducing proxy escalation with Russia and other large nations that could lead to massive conflict.

Alan believes we need to address climate change’s threat to national security. Our national security agencies have all concluded that the climate crisis will significantly impact the future of national security and resource conflicts, but we have not yet answered their call to action. Congress needs to be funding a Defense Department less with bloated weapons contracts and outdated weapons systems and more with allocated funds to research, adapt, and fight climate change as a matter of national security. For more information on Alan’s climate policy, read his plan here.

Alan believes we need to prepare for the threats of the future — especially enhancing our Cyber Security. This includes developing a central cyber command that will fully prepare the United States for cyber attacks. The United States should negotiate stronger multilateral and cooperative agreements with our allies to share information and defense strategies for cybersecurity threats. We also need to negotiate with our adversaries on global cybersecurity rules and regulations, much like we negotiated arms control agreements. At home, Alan will support legislation to help businesses and organizations voluntarily share security strategies to help one another, and to allow campaigns, agencies, and other high-profile targets of cyberattacks to invest more in protection.