Castro previews foreign policy vision ahead of brother’s likely presidential bid
Days before the mid-term election, Rep. Joaquin Castro looks to be running for a position not on the ballot.
The U.S. Representative for Bexar County spent Thursday courting national security scholars at Austin’s LBJ School, delivering a speech that outlined a foreign policy vision for a post-Trump presidency and fielding questions from an audience of professors and graduate students.
While Castro’s speech was ostensibly about Congress’s role in policymaking, it also provided him an opportunity to hone talking points that could be used in a presidential bid by his identical twin brother, Julian Castro, a former San Antonio mayor who has publicly expressed interest in a run.
In a hypothetical Castro Administration, brother Joaquin would be a natural candidate for an executive role, such as Secretary of State, CIA Director, or National Security Advisor. He serves on both the House Intelligence Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The U.S. Congressman said Thursday that he envisions bringing more transparency and accountability to U.S. foreign policy, calling these values the “two pillars” on which to build an “infrastructure of diplomacy.” Castro believes, for instance, that Congress ought to pass a new AUMF — Authorization for the Use of Military Force — to update the one passed in 2001 to legalize the ‘War on Terror’ waged under both Presidents Bush and Obama.
He would like to see more public engagement from Congress and the Administration to raise “morally uncomfortable questions” about why the U.S. conducts its foreign policy the way it does. “For example,” he said, “do we partner with a repressive government to address a more compelling national security interest?”
“Do we take on a disproportionate burden in an alliance when our partners are unwilling our unable to take responsibility for their own shares?” he added. This was apparently a reference to NATO, the U.S.-Canadian-European alliance that President Trump has made a habit of criticizing for the disproportionate share that the U.S. contributes in comparison to European allies who spend little on defense.
Castro commented that Congress and the Administration “must do a better job explaining these decisions to the American people,” citing the possibility of holding more public discussions, townhalls, and transparency.
Views on China
The San Antonio Congressman, who founded the U.S.-Japan Caucus in the House of Representatives, spoke critically of China on several matters. “Not only is China looking to eclipse us economically, we see them acting more aggressively on the world stage. They are militarizing features in the South China Sea, threatening skirmishes with neighbors like Japan over the Sinkaku islands and also advancing an agreement called RCEP, similar to the TPP, in order to establish the rules of road in terms of trade in the Pacific region.”
He elaborated his views on China during a question-and-answer period. “There are many positive things about the relationship. Still, when we think about China we have to think about what our broad approach is. And part of my critique of the Administration’s approach is that I think it’s been fairly scattershot. I don’t know that the president (at least the president, others in the Administration it may be a different story) but that the president has defined his goals with respect to China.”
“For me when I think of China, the frame that I’m working from is that I believe that we have to find a way to allow China to compete but not cheat.”
Nevertheless, Castro welcomed the Trump Administration’s recent indictment of Chinese intelligence officials who undertook commercial espionage against U.S. companies. And he urged more pushback against forcible technology transfers imposed on American companies by Chinese authorities.
Castro also criticized China over human rights, the terms of its relationships with other developing countries, and a trade pact that it is leading. “If you are a leading nation, you should be leading on things like human rights, you should be leading on top flight trade agreements. So I have some concerns about RCEP because I don’t know that it accomplishes that. I have concerns about China setting up what looks like debt traps for countries like Sri Lanka.”
‘This administration has demonstrated its desire to pull America back from the world stage’
The San Antonio politician cited several other international challenges that he would like to see the U.S. help tackle. These include the swelling global refugee population, the Syrian civil war, the threat of Nigeria’s Boko Haram terrorists, the “repression and slaughter” of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, and what he called the “migration crisis” of Latin Americans coming from the Northern Triangle countries to the United States.
Castro took another shot at the Trump Administration saying, “Given the scales of crisis, our world needs leadership, but this administration has demonstrated its desire to pull America back from the world stage and align our nation with world despots like the one in Russia, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, Kim Jong Un in North Korea, Turkey’s Erdogan, and Duterte in the Philippines.”
On Saudi Arabia, Castro criticized the regime there for the killing of journalist Jamal Kashoggi and its role in the civil war in Yemen, saying that the U.S. should cut off arms sales to the Middle East nation.
Castro’s talk, entitled “Intelligence and National Security Policymaking: A Congressional Perspective,” was co-sponsored by UT’s Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law and the Clements Center for National Security.
Photo Credit: LBJ School of Public Affairs
