If You Want Peace, Hire War Hawks???

Fine, you win--I'm finally commenting on Elbridge Colby.

In a previous life, I briefly worked with Bridge Colby. I’m certain I’ve read him more thoroughly than any critic of his ever has. And we’ve obviously traveled very different paths since our one-time convergence as fellow strategists (a story that might be worth revisiting one day).

But I’ve mostly ignored him over the years. Sure, I might pile-on when pundits are pointing out examples of warmongering or political opportunism, but I’ve generally chosen the “Don’t feed the birds” approach.

Still, I get occasional notes asking to debate him. And I’ve heard a few times that people think of me as a “left” Bridge Colby. That’s wrong, but I get it. The one thing that Bridge and I share in common is that we both understand that foreign policy is always in service of a larger political project. The folly of most national security wonks—and what has always set Bridge and I apart from them, for better or worse—is the failure to appreciate this.

Well, apropos of his political acumen, Bridge just appeared on The Tucker Carlson Show,¹ and it’s hard not to see it as an audition for the Trump administration. Bridge worked on the Ron DeSantis campaign as their leading China guy, which does not inspire given DeSantis’s paranoid, racialized vitriol toward China during the campaign and as Florida governor. And even before the most recent presidential campaign, Bridge had earned a reputation as an “uber-hawk.”²

But Trump has realized something Democrats have not—that peace sells. This could pose a problem for someone commonly identified as a militarist. And yet, as Trump’s political appointments have started trickling in, two things are clear: