By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

Too most observers the world seems to be spiraling out of control with the ongoing conflicts throughout the Middle East, with an aggressive Russia, a expansionist China, chaos in Latin America, turmoil in Africa, all these challenges awaits the next President of the United States.

As we enter the 2020 presidential election, Democratic candidates aspiring to the presidency have focused squarely on domestic policy, with scant attention be paid to foreign affairs, even in the recent debates minimal discussion has addressed how each candidate would handle global issues or have then articulate what there national security vision would be.

With the presidential election campaign moving forward, we have begun a series of articles assessing the credentials and polices of the Democratic candidates. This week we will examine the national security vision of High Technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

The Background of Andrew Yang

Andrew Yang is the first candidate of Asian ethnicity to run for president, as his parents emigrated from Taiwan and both his parents working in either technology or at a university setting.  Andrew would study economics and political science at Brown University and later would attend Columbia school of law.  After deciding this wasn’t the career path for him, decided to venture into high technology as an entrepreneur building various high tech companies.

Yang has not held any public office before deciding to run for president in 2020.

Like all the candidates seeking the presidency have advocated that climate change is an existential threat to the national security of the United States and Andrew Yang is no different.  One of the first things Yang stated he would do as president would be to take action on climate change and would commit the United States to rejoining the Paris Climate Accords.

Opponent’s would argue how would a Yang administration in rejoining the Paris Climate Accord get China a signatory to the agreement, but also the single biggest emitter of greenhouse gases to substantially reduce its carbon emissions?

China Issues Faulty Reports on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Part of the accord China like all signatories have to submit an official report to the United Nations on an annual basis, but Beijing in the past has not been transparent and regularly issues reports that are favorable to China thereby inflating its record on reducing greenhouse emissions.

How would a Yang administration force China to be more transparent and open about its greenhouse gas emissions? Yang’s presidential campaign website doesn’t address China at all.

Yang Responds To International Trade

In a questionnaire sent to all Democratic presidential candidates by the Council on Foreign Relations asking the presidential candidates various national security questions, Yang responded to trade and the Trans Pacific Partnership by stating, “We need to increase our influence and alliances across the Pacific, so I believe we need to either enter the TPP, or negotiate a similar deal to combat the rising influence of China in the region. We should take this opportunity to renegotiate labor and environmental standards, and intellectual property and data protection, specifically in the tech sector.”

Those against TPP would respond how would Yang combat China’s theft of intellectual properties, forced technology transfer, data protection, and currency manipulation?  How would Yang prevent the loss of U.S. manufactures from shifting their manufacturing capabilities outside of the U.S. since TPP would only accelerate the shift of these jobs overseas?

Yang will have the U.S. Rejoin the JCPOA

Like all the Democratic presidential candidates including Andrew Yang believe that the Trump administration’s decision to leave the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was a strategic mistake and as president would commit the United States to rejoining if elected.

By rejoining the JCPOA, Yang would negotiate a new agreement one that places limitations on Iran’s nuclear materials and enrichment capabilities, from there the U.S. could build on by working with our allies who are still part of the original accord that would work with the signatories by having Iran stop destabilizing the Middle East, and limit Tehran’s other nefarious actions.

Those opposed to rejoining the JCPOA would counter how would a Yang administration restart negotiations with the Iranian’s when they have flat out refused unless the sanctions are lifted first!  Does Yang lift the sanctions, if yes how does he prevent Tehran from using the revenue from bolstering there proxy forces across the Middle East?

When the JCPOA was signed in 2015, Iran utilized this new revenue stream to reconstitute a financially strapped Hezbollah in Lebanon which they had been crippled from their participation in Syria civil war.  Other funding went to Iraq, President Assad in Syria, to Hamas, and various other terror groups in the Middle East region.

Yang Plans to end the “Forever Wars”

Yang like all Democrats running for president want to “end the forever wars” in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Africa and other areas of the Middle East region, but missing from their pronouncement’s is who fills the vacuum left by a precipitous pullout by the United States?

If history is any guide, one only has to remember what happened to Afghanistan when the United States left after the Russians pulled out  in 1989, and when the U.S. withdrew from Iraq in 2011.

Andrew Yang has been vague about what is counterterrorism strategy would be, just because the U.S. withdraws U.S. combat forces out of the Middle East, doesn’t mean terrorism goes away.

Yang Vague on Defense Spending

How would Yang realign defense spending after 18 years of conflict and what threats does he believe we need to confront?

In his questionnaire with the CFR, Yang mentions, “Russian aggression in Ukraine is a blatant violation of international law, and we have the obligation to work with our allies to act. We need to echo the chorus of our allies in stating that Russia must return to its borders, and we won’t recognize any expansion they have into neighboring territories. Russian aggression is a destabilizing force, and we must work with our allies to project a strong and unified face against Russian expansionism.”

How would this be done, Yang mentioned he would expand sanctions against Russia, Vladimir Putin and other entities, what type of sanctions and how would this be different then the current sanction’s imposed.

As the 2020 election draws close maybe we will get a detailed national security vison on how each candidate will pursue if elected president.