Aligning Politics with Policymaking: Restructuring the Conciliatory Way

In the aftermath of the U.S. economic crisis in 1929, Franklin Roosevelt’s election to the Oval Office resulted in a slew of reforms and changes which arguably transformed the entire economic — and by extension political and global — trajectory of the United States for the rest of the 20th century and beyond.

Ira Katznelson writes in his book ‘Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time’, “Faced with emergency, the New Deal urgently had to navigate dangerous borderlands where freedom and the lack of freedom overlapped. By exploring how the New Deal dealt with these challenges, Fear Itself probes not just the achievements but the cost of doing what was necessary to preserve liberal democracy and protect its values.”

From the very contours of isolationism to the pinnacle of becoming a globalist power, the United States has witnessed many transitions in its foreign policy journey.

Unfortunately, we very frequently find today that political discourse dominates media silos in a manner with no space left for dispassionate and rational analysis. The mainstream discussion and public consensus seem to have divorced themselves from policy awareness altogether. But as the world stands at a crossroads in a dimension that cannot be definitively categorized but rather resembles the start of a new epoch with a new set of challenges — and opportunities.

Elbridge Colby has repeatedly and openly spoken of the longer-term security threats posed by the challenges that confront us in the form of a principal strategic, economic, and geopolitical rivalry with China. The nuclear deterrent that came into existence post-1945 hugely impacted the progression of military development and warfare — the creation of the Doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction, for example.

Notwithstanding the prematurity of the following claims, mankind should not be surprised if years down the line we find ourselves being surrounded by the same quantum of ramifications — only to be caused by frontier AI development this time around. Navigating these emerging sets of problems remains complicated and quasi-elusive, to say the least.

The Biden Administration’s excellent decision, in 2022, to restrict and ban the export of advanced computing and semiconductor technology to China must be viewed against this backdrop.

Given the rising technological prowess and the sheer resourcefulness of principal adversaries such as China, the rapid erosion of the defense industrial capabilities of the United States after the end of the Cold War remains a cause for great concern.

Replenishment of defense stockpiles, especially in the case of an active conflict, securing the supply chain crucial to sustained defense industrial production and efficient deployment of integrated system technologies, such as C4ISR (command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance), for swift coordination and interoperability, should be prioritized.

Finally, for the sake of efficient results, policy reform initiatives should take place under the umbrella of nationwide legislative powers and lawmaking capacities. Proactive policymaking remains the only path out of a long slumber of complacency — not predatory politics. The national political discourse must be dominated by the necessity and the urgency of fixing key structural issues. Given how infamous gridlock has been in recent times, productive bipartisan initiatives should shape the course ahead — I remain hopeful.