• Politics

Martin O’Malley’s Foreign Policy Vision: It’s the Economy

4 minute read

In a speech Friday morning that Martin O’Malley’s presidential campaign billed as “his most comprehensive remarks to date on U.S. foreign policy,” the former governor instead turned toward an area where he has more experience: the economy.

“Ultimately, the source of America’s global strength is our own prosperity at home,” O’Malley said. “No fighter jet or troop battalion will keep us as safe as a vibrant economy, a strong democracy, and a growing middle class.”

“Only with a stronger and more inclusive economy can we maintain our security,” he continued.

For a candidate with little direct experience in foreign policy, O’Malley’s remarks Friday were a moderate foray into national security issues in a Democratic primary that has largely been defined by economic questions. Unlike Hillary Clinton, the globetrotting former secretary of state, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who can point to his vote in opposition of the Iraq war and other Senate business, the border O’Malley perhaps knows best is the state line of Maryland, where he was governor for eight years.

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But O’Malley has been brushing up on his foreign policy chops, formulating a national security vision partially in concert with an informal advisor and fellow alum of the 1984 Gary Hart presidential campaign, Doug Wilson. O’Malley has met before with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Wilson said, and made several trips to Israel and Palestine.

During his keynote address at the Truman National Security Project conference in Washington D.C., O’Malley did not name specific proposals for addressing any major foreign policy issues, instead speaking generally about strengthening U.S. cybersecurity, combating climate change and “degrading” the Islamic State, “not only with military power” but with “political solutions.”

He made a reference to the attack on American diplomats in Benghazi, but did not mention Clinton herself. “And we must recognize that there are real lessons to be learned from the tragedy in Benghazi,” O’Malley said. “Namely, we need to know in advance who is likely to take power—or vie for it—once a dictator is toppled.” Clinton has been criticized by Republicans for her handling of the crisis in which a U.S. ambassador, Chris Stevens was killed.

Climate change, O’Malley said, is an urgent challenge facing global security, calling it “a very real existential threat to human life” and “the greatest business opporuntiy to come to our country in a hundred years. He pointed to the Internet as the new frontier of national security, saying that stolen intellectual property and cybercrime cost American jobs and “could grind our national and metro economies to a halt.”

But ultimately, O’Malley said that America’s role is to advance a rising global middle class, focusing on economic development at home and abroad.

“Only with a stronger and more inclusive American economy, will we succeed in pursuing a more effective foreign policy for the cause that we lead: of a rising global middle class—free from oppression, want, and fear,” O’Malley said.

O’Malley has so far rested his candidacy largely on his economic platform. He points to Maryland’s growth during the recession, and calls for separating commercial and investment banks, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and expanding Social Security. He has framed himself as an economic populist and a progressive alternative to Clinton.

O’Malley hasn’t been a particularly vocal observer of foreign policy in the past. Even during an eight-day trip to Israel and Palestine in April 2013, his third to the country, he shied away from reporters’ questions on the conflict. “I’m sure all of you will ask me foreign policy questions,” he said as he opened the floor, the New York Times reported that year. “I respect your right to ask them, and I hope you’ll respect my right to shy away from answering them.”

He said last year during the war with Gaza in which over 2,000 Gazans and more than 60 Israelis were killed that “Israel has a right to defend itself,” but when pressed, O’Malley didn’t comment on whether the violence was disproportionate.

LIFE's Best Convention Photos: The Democrats

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Scene at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.John Phillips—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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Of this picture, LIFE noted in its July 29, 1940, issue: "Trying, amid the general convention apathy and sullenness, to find some Democrats who appeared to be having fun [as it was clear FDR would be nominated for an unprecedented third term, the convention lacked drama], a LIFE photographer went to the famous 606 Club ... featuring an almost continuous strip tease."John Phillips—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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Mrs. Estes Kefauver (center, in white hat) watching the action at the 1952 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Mrs. Estes Kefauver (center, in white hat) watching the action at the 1952 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.Ralph Morse—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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Michigan Senator Blair Moody (right) and Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. confer during the 1952 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.Hank Walker—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mrs. John F. Kennedy at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Mrs. John F. Kennedy at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Left to right: Senator Estes Kefauver, Gov. Frank Clement, Sen. Albert Gore and candidate Adlai Stevenson at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
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Scene at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Scene at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Two-way radios were used to interview delegates on the floor at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
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Not originally published in LIFE. Senator John F. Kennedy speaks at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.
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Delegates from Illinois show their support for President Lyndon Johnson at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
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Robert F. Kennedy (right), his wife Ethell and Democratic stalwart Averell Harriman at a reception for Jackie Kennedy during the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
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President Lyndon Johnson with his running mate Hubert Humphrey during the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
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Demonstrators protest American involvement in the Vietnam War outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 1968.
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Not originally published in LIFE. Connecticut delegates and Eugene McCarthy supporters Paul Newman (right) and playwright Arthur Miller during the contentious 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Not originally published in LIFE. Connecticut delegates and Eugene McCarthy supporters Paul Newman (right) and playwright Arthur Miller during the contentious 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.Ralph Crane—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
A protestor is grabbed by police during a demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 1968.
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California delegate Charles Anderson burns his credentials to protest the party's decision to seat only half of Georgia's civil rights delegation during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 1968.
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Chicago mayor Richard Daley — a Democrat who served for five terms and remains one of the most controversial figures in Chicago political history — on the floor during the Democratic National Convention in 1968.
Chicago mayor Richard Daley — a Democrat who served for five terms and remains one of the most controversial figures in Chicago political history — on the floor during the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Ralph Crane—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Delegates for Alabama's George Wallace cheer behind a delegate for New York's Shirley Chisholm—the first African-American woman ever elected to Congress—during the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach.
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George McGovern delegation co-chair Willie Brown, Jr.—later the powerful, long-time Speaker of the California State Assembly and, eventually, the mayor of San Francisco—embraces an unidentified woman during the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach. McGovern would win his party's nomination, but was crushed by Richard Nixon during the presidential election, winning only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
George McGovern delegation co-chair Willie Brown, Jr.—later the powerful, long-time Speaker of the California State Assembly and, eventually, the mayor of San Francisco—embraces an unidentified woman during the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach. McGovern would win his party's nomination, but was crushed by Richard Nixon during the presidential election, winning only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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