Robert M. Gates
Foreign Affairs Magazine
Can a Divided America Deter China and Russia?
It was a chaotic week in Washington. Congressional Republicans ended the week in disarray after GOP lawmakers voted down a bipartisan border security bill they fought for, leaving aid to Ukraine and Israel hanging in the balance. President Joe Biden also ended the week reeling after a special counsel report cleared him of criminal charges in a classified documents case but brought new scrutiny to his age and acuity.
American political dysfunction risks diminishing U.S. power in the world, warns former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. “Nobody seems to be afraid of us,” he observed in the latest episode of “The Foreign Affairs Interview.” Paralysis in Washington could not come at a worse time. “The United States finds itself in a uniquely treacherous position: facing aggressive adversaries with a propensity to miscalculate yet incapable of mustering the unity and strength necessary to dissuade them,” Gates wrote in a 2023 essay. Today’s dangerous world requires that policymakers of all stripes work together with a consistent strategy, Gates wrote. And “therein lies the rub.”