Richardson calls for 'new realism' in US foreign policy

Republican Mike Huckabee's essay in the upcoming "Foreign Affairs" journal has grabbed headlines for his criticism of what he calls President Bush's "arrogant" go-it-alone foreign policy.

But Democrat Bill Richardson penned his own article in the January/February issue that calls for a "new realism" in America's approach to the world.

"We must reject both isolationist fantasies of retreat from global engagement and neoconservative fantasies of transforming other countries through the unilateral application of American military power," Richardson writes. "Our policy also must go beyond the balance-of-power realism of the last century. In this new, interdependent world, we need a New Realism -- one driven by an understanding that to defend our national interests, we must, more than ever, find common ground with others, so that we can lead them toward our common purposes."

The New Mexico governor is promising to pull out all US troops from Iraq by the end of his first year as president, and is calling for much more emphasis on negotiation than the Bush administration. He also says that America must restore its reputation in the world by renewing its commitment to human rights.

Richardson argues he has more real foreign policy experience than his Democratic presidential rivals who are ahead of him in the polls. He served as US ambassador to the United Nations under President Clinton, as a special envoy, and as a self-appointed negotiator to help win the release of Americans from Iraq, North Korea, and the Sudan.