Thread by @ClaireBerlinski

This is an extremely interesting document. What's everyone's guess about the author? Might it be Pottinger? Anyone familiar enough with his thought to hazard a guess? politico.com/news/magazine/…

The idea that Russia can be peeled off from China is delusional. Apart from that, this seems well-considered strategic advice--*except* that the US is in no position to execute a patient strategy over many administrations. For that, you need two functional political parties--

both of which are prepared to pursue a consistent foreign policy in which partisan politics stop at the water's edge. The GOP seems determined to drag the US into a low-level civil war, which will make it impossible for the US to project power this way over the coming decades.

Apart from that, it's a well-conceived policy memo.

Also, Xi has not returned China to "classical Marxism-Leninism."

But I think the author is right to say the focus of policy should be Xi himself, playing on the internal fault lines within the Chinese leadership. Also right in identifying Xi’s strategic objectives.

He or she is also right to stress that US strategy must also be fully coordinated with major allies, that the US has no hope without them, and this means the US must act on its allies' wider political and economic needs.

And right, too, to stress that the US needs to "rebuild the economic, military, technological and human-capital underpinnings of U.S. long-term national power." But this is easier said than done. And can't be done when half the country is delusional.

How do you "prosecute a full-fledged, global ideological battle in defense of political, economic and societal freedoms against China’s authoritarian state-capitalist model" when it's entirely possible Trump or someone like him could be elected again in four years?

The author rightly says it's essential to integrate "the US, Canadian and Mexican economies into a seamless market of five-hundred million in order to underpin long-term economic strength relative to China; and [renegotiate[ the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement."

This is obvious. But given the real possibility that a Trump or Trump-like figure will be in power in four years, how likely is it that this would be quickly undone?

This is true, but the author would have done well to explore why this is. The US won't develop "self-belief" unless it fixes the problems that caused it to have the second-worst pandemic performance in the world. Our confidence is shaken for a reason.

I agree with almost all of the policy prescriptions, but none of them are feasible unless the GOP returns to sanity. The madness of the GOP is tragic and catastrophic.

I don't mean to sound too defeatist. Perhaps Biden will be successful enough that the GOP is either rendered permanently unelectable or returns to sanity because it's electorally imperative. But right now, the GOP is a massive strategic liability for the US.