In his recent post on the ForeignPolicy.com blog Shadow Government, Dr. William Inboden analyzes and criticizes the foreign policy strategies Senator Rand Paul presented in his recent speech at the Heritage Foundation.

Dr. Inboden begins with a comparison of definitions of “realism” to the ideas expressed by Senator Paul, a self-defined realist. By any definition, Dr. Inboden argues, it would be incorrect to label Senator Paul’s stance as “realist.”

From a foreign policy strategy perspective, Dr. Inboden criticizes Senator Paul’s recommendation to apply the Cold War doctrine of containment to confront radical Islam. The basis for the criticism is that such a strategy ignores the unique characteristics of radical Islam and the preconditions for containment to succeed.

Politically, Senator Paul prefers to compare himself to Reagan, but Dr. Inboden sees a better historical comparison in Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. While Taft’s domestic policies were “principled and prescient,” his foreign policy stances would have taken the U.S. down a route that “was more wrong than right.”

Read the full article here.