Trump reboots the US foreign-policy debate

Washington

SINCE the end of the 1960s, when American military intervention in Southeast Asia triggered a long and bitter public debate, students of American politics and US foreign policy seemed to be operating based on the following axiom:

The Democratic Party and the liberal politicians and intellectuals who embodied its values were representative of a school of thought that advocated foreign-policy restraint and placed emphasis on resolving international crises through the use of diplomatic means, as opposed to military force.

Republicans and conservatives, on the other hand, embraced a foreign-policy agenda that accentuated the need to maintain a str…