Giuliani's Hawkish Foreign Policy Team

When Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani announced his foreign policy team recently, quite a few eyebrows were raised at the very hawkish list of names, which included some well-known neocons and Middle East experts.

Charles Hill, former political counselor to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv and former assistant to Reagan Administration Secretary of State George Schultz, is on the list, as is Stephen Rosen, a military expert and professor of National Security and Military Affairs at Harvard University. Norman Podhoretz, former editor of Commentary magazine and an advocate for military action against Iran, also makes an appearance on the list, as does Martin Kramer, an expert on Islam from Harvard.

To provide a little bit of balance, Giuliani chose former Senator Bob Kasten, a respected conservative, and Peter Berkowitz, who studies legal issues surrounding policies designed to deal with terrorists and terrorist acts. Giuliani has also tapped Kim Holmes of the conservative Heritage Foundation in order to provide him with some expertise on U.S. homeland security issues.

Part of this, I think, involves Giuliani playing to his strengths. He received a lot of praise for his leadership in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and he, perhaps as much as anyone else, has a sharp understanding of the threat posed by radical Islamic elements like al-Qaeda and its offshoot splinter groups. He understands that the terrorists we are fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Philippines, and elsewhere will not just go away if we reduce our dependence on foreign oil and pull our forces out of the Middle East. He seems to grasp a simple concept that somehow eludes many of our elected leaders in the Congress: that radical Islamists want nothing short of global domination that destroys our values, our beliefs, and our way of life.

Giuliani's foreign policy team reflects a keen awareness that the problems of the Middle East will not soon fade. While advocates of a reduced American presence in the region and anti-war activists may decry many of his choices, Giuliani is rightly focusing on the area of the world most likely to be a significant source of grief during the next president's tenure in the White House. His foreign policy team is made up of intelligent men and women who will no doubt serve him well if he secures the Republican nomination and defeat's whichever anti-war candidate faces him in the general election.