Former Florida governor Jeb Bush heads to Europe next week to put a checkmark in a final box before making his US presidential campaign official: an overseas visit to catch up with a few of the US’ friends.
All of his hosts, Germany, Poland and Estonia, are stalwart US allies, and they are calmer destinations than the cauldron of the Middle East. However, the last name Bush still stirs anger in parts of Europe — a legacy of former US President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq.
For Jeb Bush, the trick with his first trip overseas as a White House hopeful is to avoid spending too much time making the same case to European leaders as he has had to make at home to US voters: that he is not his brother.
Photo: AFP
“If he tries to make this trip about see-how-I’m-not-like-George W. Bush, if that’s the story line of the trip, it will not have been a success,” said Peter Feaver, former head of strategic operations at the US National Security Agency and now a professor at Duke University.
The trip comes at a key time for Jeb Bush. He will return a day before beginning his campaign with an event in Miami, fresh from a journey he hopes will show that he is ready to step onto the world stage.
“A Republican doing a listening tour of American allies, that makes sense, but you’re also wanting to demonstrate the ability to be proficient in personal diplomacy,” said William Inboden, who served as senior director for strategic planning with the US National Security Council under George W. Bush.
Jeb Bush’s six-day trip begins with a speech in Berlin on Tuesday to the economic council of the Christian Democratic Union, the conservative party led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A mix of public and private events in Germany, Poland and Estonia follow.
The early days of the Republican campaign suggest much of the party’s presidential primary debate will focus on foreign policy, given the ongoing unrest in Iraq, civil war in Syria and a preliminary agreement — deeply unpopular among Republicans — between Iran and the US and five allies aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program.
Jeb Bush’s early discussions about foreign policy have often drifted into his brother’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, which some critics cite as the cause of regional unrest that helped lead to the rise of the Islamic State.
Jeb Bush’s effort to avoid publicly criticizing his brother led him into a twisted series of answers about whether he would have made the same invasion decision, making for his roughest political week since he expressed interest in December last year in running for the White House.
While he still plans to talk during his trip about the threat posed by the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, he is to do so in a place where the discussion can be about how the extremist group is one of several shared threats faced by the US and its Western allies.
Aides said Jeb Bush aims to underscore the early themes of his approach to global affairs during his visit, namely that the US ought to reinforce its relationships with its allies and demonstrate solidarity with the democratic success stories in Eastern Europe.
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