Senator Chris Murphy on why US foreign policy is ‘mismatched’ to its challenges and what Democrats can do about it
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US foreign policy is “pretty mismatched” to the United States’ challenges, said Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) at an Atlantic Council event on the 2024 elections on Monday co-hosted by RBC Capital Markets, the first in a series of events bringing in speakers from both parties.
Murphy—a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Appropriations committees—argued that the United States is spending heavily on military aid and investment but not enough on solutions to the “most serious threats” for the United States, such as climate change, corruption, and misinformation.
“Those challenges can’t be met with aircraft carriers, tanks, or planes,” he said. “You need smart power, you need economic development, you need nimble international development banks, [and] you need anti-misinformation capacity.”
Murphy spoke ahead of Tuesday’s presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. In the event of a future Harris administration, Murphy said to expect “a significant degree of continuity” with the Biden administration but also “new priorities”—given that Harris is a “next generation” candidate—to address artificial intelligence (AI), mitigate and adapt to climate change, and combat global poverty. Murphy said he expects the Harris administration to work closely with the United States’ allies and partners.
A future Trump administration, Murphy predicted, would carry over policies and approaches from the former president’s first term, including its approach to the United States’ alliances. “I don’t think we can trust that NATO will still be around at the end of a Trump presidency,” Murphy warned, adding that the United States would become “a pariah at a moment where it is more important than ever before that we seek and deepen our alliances.”
Below are more highlights from the conversation, moderated by Bloomberg’s Kailey Leinz, in which Murphy outlined priorities for the next administration’s foreign-policy agenda, from China to the Middle East to Ukraine.
On China
- Murphy defended the longstanding US approach of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan. He said that the United States has “a deep and abiding interest in Taiwan’s sovereignty and independence” and that Democrats are “holding open the possibility” of defending Taiwan if China were to try to take Taiwan by force. But he also advocated that Taiwan “increase its defense spending.”
- Amid concerns about navigating strategic competition with China, Murphy said that the United States has “woken up far too late” to the mistake it has made over decades by working to integrate China into the global economy under the belief that doing so would protect US workers, US national security interests, democratic values, and human rights. “It did none of those things,” he said. Instead, it has allowed China “to get all of the benefits of economic integration while continuing to squash domestic dissent.”
- “I don’t think we are going to decouple ourselves completely from China,” he said. Rather, Murphy said, the next administration should focus on boosting the strength of strategic industries—such as critical minerals, medicine, and advanced technology—to ensure that the United States can produce what it needs. He said that deploying tariffs can help support these US industries.
- “China delights as the United States refuses to regulate social media and AI,” Murphy said, noting that the next administration should prioritize these areas. He warned that, because of China’s leadership in such platforms and technologies, leaving them unregulated “could be the undoing of our own democracy.”
On the Middle East
- On the Israel-Hamas war, Murphy expressed concern that there is “political upside in not signing a ceasefire” for both parties to the conflict, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempts to hold onto his coalition and as Hamas sees support growing.
- Murphy, reflecting on speculation that Netanyahu is hoping for a Trump win in the US elections, argued that “Netanyahu personally probably does have something to lose from an American administration that cares most about Israel’s security, not Netanyahu’s personal political security.”
- On Iran, Murphy argued that “there might be a benefit” to have dialogue with Tehran “down the line at some point . . . But this is not that moment right now,” with how Iran is supporting proxy groups in the region.
On Ukraine
- Murphy noted that the next administration will likely still be dealing with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in part because Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely basing his calculation on whether to seek an end to the war on the outcome of the US election.
- “Trump has made it clear if he’s president, he will cut support off for Ukraine. If America cuts support for Ukraine, there’s no way for Ukraine to survive,” he warned. Murphy said that Harris’s commitment to the “long fight” might push Putin to consider a deal.
- “All of us who care deeply about the United States helping Ukraine have to do a better job of explaining why that’s different” from interventions the United States made in the Middle East in the past, he argued. Russia’s attempt to expand its borders by invading a neighboring country “threatens to upend the global order,” he said. He added that he believes Harris, with her skepticism about US military commitments in the Middle East, would be well-positioned to make the case to the public that supporting Ukraine is different.
- Murphy said that the war in Ukraine has revealed that the US defense industrial base is “broken” given how quickly the war drained Western ammunition stocks. The defense industrial base “is too thin,” he said. “It is too dependent on profit-based efficiency. It is not redundant enough. It’s not resilient enough.” He said the next administration will have to “move fast” to broaden and diversify the number of major defense suppliers—before an even larger war breaks out.
On foreign policy
- “The American foreign policy establishment has made a bunch of very big mistakes,” Murphy warned. Because of US failures to protect national-security interests in places such as Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, Murphy argued that Americans have “a hangover” that causes them to “question the wisdom of any recommendation that’s being given on committing US resources or troops overseas.”
- He also argued that the US foreign policy establishment has made a “big” mistake by putting “blind faith in global neoliberal economics,” or that integrating global markets would benefit the US economy. “That didn’t work” because of “cheater nations like China,” he said.
- The next administration, Murphy said, will also need to “gain back America’s faith in the national security establishment.” He said that to do so, the next president will need to adopt “restraint as a strategy” when it comes to military involvement abroad, to “show the American public that that finally, we have leaders that are willing to learn the lessons of the mistakes we’ve made.”
Katherine Walla is an associate director of editorial at the Atlantic Council.
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