Nikki Haley’s approach to foreign policy not based on wishful thinking

Michael McKenna, Cheryl K. Chumley and Jeffrey Scott Shapiro

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Foreign policy and national security are arcane disciplines, but with experience comes expertise. Or not.

President Biden has been engaged in international affairs throughout his long political career, including eight years as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Bob Gates, who served as secretary of defense in both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, wrote in 2014 that Mr. Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

The late Charles Krauthammer had already observed that Mr. Biden “holds the American record for [being] wrong on the most issues in foreign affairs ever.” The late Sen. John McCain’s evaluation: “Biden has been consistently wrong on every national security issue that I’ve been involved in in the last 20 years or so.”

Since moving to the White House, Mr. Biden has reinforced those judgments. His foreign policy has been based on wishful thinking — on seeing the world not as it is but as he’d like it to be.

Examples? He turned Afghanistan over to the Taliban — in the most humiliating way imaginable — and then proclaimed mission accomplished. He insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin, if not provoked but only cautioned about possible economic sanctions, would refrain from armed aggression. He continues to claim that Iran’s rulers will give up their nuclear weapons program in exchange for a fistful of dollars.

Now consider Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, the first minority female governor in American history. She had zero experience in foreign affairs when former President Donald Trump appointed her U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

But she’s a fast learner who soon proved to be an extraordinarily adept advocate for truth, justice and the American way. Four years ago, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, my think tank, presented her with its Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Statesmanship Award.

Last week, at the Policy Exchange think tank in London, Mrs. Haley gave a speech titled, “Winning the Clash of Civilizations.” She laid out the threats facing America and its allies, explained what’s wrong with the current administration’s response, and outlined how we can — indeed, how we must — defend Western interests and values.