Senator Richard Lugar’s loss in the May 8
Indiana Republican primary to State Treasurer Richard Mourdock will remove from
the Senate one of the most knowledgeable and active proponents of strong U.S.
ties with Southeast Asia. His departure will also prompt a reshuffle of the
Republican leadership on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Lugar,
a six-term senator, one-time Rhodes scholar at Oxford and former U.S. Navy
intelligence briefer, has served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
since 1985, currently as ranking Republican and twice as the committee’s
chairman. Known as a moderate, bipartisan lawmaker, the 80-year-old Lugar will
be remembered most for promoting arms control, working to contain nuclear
proliferation, fashioning coherent U.S. energy policies, confronting the global
food crisis, and championing free trade.
In a
statement released after Lugar’s defeat, President Barack Obama said, “While
Dick and I didn’t always agree on everything, I found during my time in the
Senate that he was often willing to reach across the aisle and get things
done.”
Lugar was
long one of the Senate’s foremost experts on foreign affairs. When he assumed
the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee in 2003 for the second time, he
gave a press conference for foreign journalists, which he began with a
20-minute overview of key issues from every region of the world, including
Asia. He effortlessly ticked off the names of leaders and key facts about many
countries, all without notes. He then fielded questions, ranging from China to
Africa to Brazil and back to North Korea and Russia, for another 45 minutes
without skipping a beat.
Senator
Lugar has stressed the importance of Southeast Asia since he joined the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee in 1985. The following year he played a pivotal
role in persuading President Ronald Reagan to abandon support for President
Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, leading eventually to his peaceful ouster
and the country’s return to democracy.The senator was among the first to
recognize the evolving strategic importance of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), and in 2006, he authored legislation creating the
position of U.S. ambassador for ASEAN affairs. He later worked to generate
bipartisan support for the position, paving the way for the United States to be
the first country to appoint an envoy to ASEAN based in Jakarta, where the
grouping’s secretariat is housed.
As a
long-time proponent of free trade and aware of ASEAN’s growing economic
importance as the United States’ fourth-largest trading partner, Lugar proposed
legislation twice, in 2009 and again in 2011, calling on the administration to
initiate talks on a U.S.-ASEAN free trade agreement.
The
three senators considered to be in line for Lugar’s position as top Republican
on the Foreign Relations Committee are Bob Corker (R-TN), James Risch (R-ID),
and Marco Rubio (R-FL). These three senators have not yet developed a public
reputation on Asia, although Corker has expressed concern about developments in
North Korea.
If the
Republicans take control of the Senate in the November elections—they need four
seats to do so—Lugar’s successor could become chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee. In that scenario, his successor would replace Senator John Kerry
(D-MA), a Vietnam War veteran who has extensive experience in and knowledge of
Asia generally and Southeast Asia in particular. Kerry and Lugar worked together effectively,
a clear but too rare example of bipartisanship focused on promoting the
national interests of the United States.
Two
other senators with vast experience in Asia are retiring at the end of the
year: Jim Webb (D-VA), chairman of the Asia Subcommittee and a strong proponent
of engagement with Myanmar, and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). Christopher “Kit” Bond
(R-MO), who was long actively involved in Southeast Asia, and Chuck Hagel
(R-NE), a veteran of the Vietnam war, retired in 2010. Before them, active leaders on US engagement
in Southeast Asia like Sam Nunn (D-GA) and William Cohen (R-ME) left the upper
chamber of Congress.
The
Senate will depend heavily on stalwart leaders like John Kerry and John McCain
and will have to groom a new crop of Asia experts to replace those who are leaving
or have already left as the administration rebalances its policy toward Asia
and strives to strengthen a solid foundation in Southeast Asia.
Murray
Hiebert is a senior fellow and deputy director of the Southeast Asia Program at
the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.
MeiLee Dozier is a researcher with the CSIS Southeast Asia Program.
Murray
Hiebert and MeiLee Dozier
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