Foreign Policy Update – USA Gov Policy

CROATIA

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo met with Croatian Prime Minister Plenkovic during his recent trip to Croatia. He announced the United States will remain engaged in the region to ensure a good outcome for Europe. Pompeo said he hopes Croatia decides to go with the F-16 planes and that it is a sovereign decision which will deliver value to the Croatian people. He added it is “part of a larger context of the relationship between the United States and Europe where we will show up aiming to make sure that we deliver good security outcomes…” Pompeo assured the Prime Minister that the United States will “use its economic and diplomatic tools to try and drive these processes forward in a way that is serious and thoughtful and engages not only the capacities that the EU and NATO bring, but also those that the United States can uniquely bring to these conversations.”

TURKEY

Syrian fighters in Libya have been moved through southern Turkey into Azerbaijan, according to reports seen by Secretary Pompeo. He believes Azerbaijan instigated this conflict and questions why Turkish President Erdogan would allow that to happen at this time when tensions were easing in the Eastern Mediterranean. Pompeo added that he hopes “it’s not the case… [It] created more instability, more turbulence, more conflict, more fighting, less peace.” Pompeo urged all nations to “just stay out” of the fighting other than to urge a ceasefire.

IRAN

President Trump is continuing the maximum pressure campaign against Iran as part of his broader efforts in the Middle East to create Middle Eastern stability. In a Thursday interview, Secretary Pompeo said that the wrong way to approach Iran was “to appease, to give them money, to give them wealth, to create opportunities for them to continue to build out their terror campaign around the world, so we’ve stopped that.”

President Rouhani, according to Pompeo, said that they have lost $150 billion as a result of the American efforts. Pompeo added that the $150 billion “would have cost people all around the world their lives” and that the US has been successful in this effort.

VATICAN

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A senior State Department official, while in Rome for meetings with the Vatican, said that they US was having “very productive engagement… and a very respectful exchange…” concerning more than a million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz locked up in internment camps. The official told Vatican officials that Protestant house churches are being burned down, Catholic sermons are being monitored and Catholic priests and laypeople are being abused in China. The official added that Tibetans who are undergoing a new wave of oppression along with Falun Gong adherents are suffering enormously under the Chinese communist regime.

PACIFIC ISLANDS

The United States reaffirmed its pledge to a free and open Indo-Pacific region. The State Department is doubling from $100 million last year to $200 million in 2020, the amount of new funding as part of the Pacific Pledge. This figure includes more than $78 million in new programming across the Indo-Pacific Pillars and $130 million in support for the region’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Office of the State Department Spokesperson, this assistance is in addition to the approximately $350 million that US agencies invest annually in projects, assistance, and operations to build a more prosperous future for people in the Pacific Island region.

CHINA

The tide has turned against China, according to Secretary Pompeo, as “The Chinese Government unleashed a virus on the world…. They deceived the world and they covered up.” While traveling in Europe Pompeo addressed press questions about China’s 5G network: “I’m confident that many more European countries now, frankly because of just sharing information with them, they’re going to make their own sovereign decision that says no, we don’t want our citizens’ data in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. I think every European country now understands this, is increasingly aware of it.” Washington has reached out to Europe to provide data concerning the Chinese security threat in recent months. It appears countries are now holding off on implementing the Chinese version of 5G on the continent.

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.

Illustration: Pixabay

Quick Analysis

Why the Electoral College is Vital

Proposals for radical alterations in the way Americans vote are dangerous concepts that would have dramatic consequences for the nation and its Constitution. Some, such as ranked choice voting, are an unblushing bid to prop up fringe, leftist candidates. Others. if adopted, would essentially disunite the nation and overturn its Constitution. As they consistently have after each election loss, Democrat spokespeople have flooded the airwaves with complaints about the Electoral College. Why, they ask, can’t we have a “popular vote,” and let it be done with. Since the Electoral College process is part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution, it would be necessary to pass a Constitutional amendment to change this system. The National Archives notes that over the past 200 years more than 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. There have been more proposals for Constitutional amendments on changing the Electoral College than on any other subject. The answer is as simple as the name of the country: The United States of America. The incredibly successful nation created almost two and a half centuries ago was a union of separate states. Fresh off of dealing with a monarch, it was intentionally set up that way to both prevent the possibility of having an all-powerful dictator, and to prevent larger states from bullying smaller ones. Abolishing the electoral college would essentially disenfranchise smaller states from having any say in the presidency. Indeed, even less populated areas of large states would lose influence. A collection of large cities, (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, Austin, Jacksonville, etc.) would decide the outcome in who gets the White House. Considering how badly many of those urban centers are run, that would not bode well for the future of the country! Beyond the practical policy implications, it would alienate the populations of those not living in California, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, who would, for the most part, be reduced to bystanders in the race for the only nationally-elected position. A Heritage study analyzed the concept of a “National Popular Vote” (NPV) this way: “The National Popular Vote (NPV) plan is the latest in a long line of schemes designed to replace the Electoral College. Imbued with the ideals of this nation’s Founders, the Electoral College has proved itself to be both effective in providing orderly elections for President and resilient in allowing a stable transfer of power of the leadership of the world’s greatest democracy. Therefore, while it would be a mistake to replace the Electoral College, replacing this system with the NPV would be a disaster. The NPV would devalue the minority interests that the Founders sought to protect, create electoral administrative problems, encourage voter fraud, and radicalize the U.S. political system. It also would likely violate the U.S. Constitution’s Compact Clause while directly contravening the Founders’ view of federalism and a representative republic. In an age of perceived political dysfunction, effective policies already in place—especially successful policies established by this nation’s Founders, such as the Electoral College—should be preserved.” Trent England, writing for the National Conference of State Legislatures outlined key reasons for the institution: “At the Constitutional Convention, the primary concern of delegates opposed to direct election was that big states would dominate presidential politics. By using a two-step election process, the Electoral College prevents one region, or a handful of major metropolitan areas, from controlling the White House. Support must be geographically distributed around the country in order to win enough states to capture an electoral vote majority. This was particularly important after the Civil War. The nation remained divided, and Democrats became dominant in the south. A combination of intense popularity with some voters and violent suppression of others allowed Democrats to receive the most popular votes in 1876 and 1888 even though they lost the Electoral College and thus those elections.” Eliminating the Electoral College would be a disaster for the United States/