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Japan is a favorite target of most of the Democrats. Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey has accused Tokyo of using unfair trade practices to undermine prosperity in the U.S. and impede the development of poorer countries. Former Senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts gets laughs in neighboring New Hampshire when he says, "The cold war is over and Japan won." But Tsongas has a more sophisticated approach than most of his Democratic rivals, emphasizing restoring American technological and industrial primacy rather than lashing out at foreign countries.
Of the announced Democratic candidates, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton has gone furthest in framing a coherent approach that includes efforts to promote fair trade but avoids nostalgic appeals to isolationism in economic or political terms. Last week he outlined his differences with his Democratic rivals -- and with Bush -- in a major speech on national security policy. He argued that the U.S. must maintain its influence in a world still groping for stability and at the same time address domestic problems. In Clinton's view, national security depends as much on economic vitality as it does on a strong military. One way to accomplish both goals, he said, is to accelerate cuts in defense spending already under way while modernizing the military-force structure.
The savings would be devoted to domestic development programs and deficit reduction. Further raids on the Pentagon budget are probably inevitable; all the Democratic candidates favor diversion of military funds to domestic purposes, and the Administration is inching in that direction. But doing that will require rewriting the budget accord struck by Congress and the Administration last year, which forbids any savings from reduced defense spending to be shifted to domestic programs. Still, Clinton's proposal is a serious attempt to treat national security and domestic needs as complements to each other rather than as an either-or proposition.
Some dedicated internationalists, in fact, have been trying to move the debate over national security in that direction since the Soviet collapse began. "Curing our domestic ills," says William Hyland, editor of Foreign Affairs, "is part of good foreign policy." He argues that throughout the cold war, fighting communism almost invariably prevailed over domestic needs. Now the balance must be shifted back toward the homefront if the U.S. is to retain the strength it needs to play an important role in the world.