There is an increasing sense of division in the Republican Party when it comes to the U.S. posture abroad, particularly when it comes to countering Russia, as Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, joins Donald Trump as his running mate in the race for the White House.

The calls to stop military aid to Ukraine reflect a fundamental break in the party and a reversal to the long-held GOP neoconservative approach to foreign policy, which previously leaned heavily on an interventionist strategy.

Ronald Reagan famously held a “peace through strength” approach, which relies on military power to preserve global stability, a policy that both the Bush administrations adhered to.

But the policies practiced by Republican Party leaders from the 1980s through the early 2000s have prompted a rise to a different approach in the GOP, a strategy not largely held since before World War II — isolationism. 

TRUMP DEMANDS EUROPE COUGH UP MORE CASH FOR UKRAINE, SAYS WAR WITH RUSSIA WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED ON HIS WATCH

“I do think that is a repudiation,” Victoria Coates, a former deputy national security adviser to Trump, told Fox News Digital, pointing to the decades-long wars in the Middle East. “A rejection of the traditional establishment neoconservative stance, which favors military intervention to promote democracy.

“I just don’t think that that’s been a winning formula,” she said, noting many Republicans today agree, including Vance.

In a speech at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in May, Vance made clear there are stark divisions in the GOP when it comes to foreign policy. 

“We really have to get past the tired old slogans,” Vance said. “The way that American foreign policy has proceeded for the last 40 years — think about the wreckage and think about the actual results.

“People are terrified of confronting new arguments, I believe, because they’re terrified of confronting their own failure over the last 40 years.”

In his speech, Vance specifically pointed to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been an ardent supporter of Ukraine and who became a senator the year Vance was born in 1984. 

“Nearly every foreign policy position he’s held has actually been wrong,” Vance claimed. 

The push by some in the Republican Party to back off aid to Ukraine stalled military supplies to the war-torn nation for six months and revealed the true extent to which Kyiv relies on the U.S. in its fight against Russia. 

Former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and vice presidential nominee JD Vance applaud at the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee July 16, 2024.  (Reuters/Callaghan O’hare)

TRUMP SHOOTING PLAYS INTO RUSSIA, CHINA PLANS TO DIVIDE US AHEAD OF ELECTIONS

While many in the GOP see Ukraine’s victory over Moscow as a vital security interest to the U.S., Vance and Trump believe it should also be Europe’s burden to shoulder. 

Unease among NATO allies over the threat of discontinued aid to Ukraine under a Trump presidency has prompted speculation that the security of Europe, and even the alliance, could be in jeopardy. 

Headlines this week reported “concern,” “anxiety” and a “nightmare” scenario for Ukraine as Vance has unequivocally opposed continued aid to Kyiv and has instead pushed for a stronger stance when it comes to countering China. 

“I think we should stop supporting the Ukrainian conflict,” Vance said in May. “I do not think that it is in America’s interest to continue to fund an effectively never-ending war in Ukraine.

“The second-biggest criticism I make about the war in Ukraine and our approach to it is that we are subsidizing the Europeans to do nothing.”

Ukrainian servicemen rest at their positions after a fight as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues near Bakhmut, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, May 11, 2023.  (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko via Reuters)

Trump first led the push in getting more NATO nations to meet their 2006 defense spending pledges, and the war in Ukraine has ensured that now 23 of the 32 nations are hitting the 2% GDP threshold. 

Some nations have not only hit their goals but have begun contributing well beyond their original pledge, including Poland, which contributes 4.12%. Estonia, the U.S., Latvia and Greece all give more than 3% and Lithuania contributes 2.85%.

Despite advances in international defense efforts, there is a fundamental divide in the GOP when it comes to the U.S. and its relationship with NATO. 

“They’ve done a great job, and that’s terrific,” Coates, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation, said. “Unfortunately, their scale is not enough to really move the needle. 

“We need the big economies,” she added, pointing to Canada, which still only contributes 1.37% of its GDP to defense spending despite being the world’s 10th largest economy. “That just can’t go on.”

NATO SAFEGUARDS SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE AMID SHAKY BIDEN RE-ELECTION BID

In this photo made available by the German Federal Government, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, speaks with President Trump, seated at right, during the G-7 Leaders Summit in La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, June 9, 2018.  (Jesco Denzel/German Federal Government via AP)

Experts agree it is unlikely Trump would fully pull out of the NATO alliance. Though there is concern he could weaken the alliance by cutting aid to Ukraine or by pulling U.S. troops out of Europe.

But while Vance has argued “America can’t do everything” and therefore should focus on the threat China poses, Hal Brands, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank in Washington, D.C., argued it is not that simple.

“U.S.-China competition is not simply a regional competition. It’s a global competition,” he said. “It involves things like control of advanced technologies, as well as things like the military balance of power.”

Brand, who is also the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, argued that the U.S. needs to maintain its European relations to leverage its influence “to choke off China’s access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing.”

“Even if you think that China is the overriding priority in U.S. policy, you won’t be effective in dealing with China unless you have some degree of influence that the transatlantic relationship provides,” he added.

There is growing concern among Republicans that adhere to a broad U.S. international presence that isolationism is on the rise, and there are security threats that that could pose. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands in Moscow, Russia, March 21, 2023. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via Getty Images)

“It has become all too easy to just assume that Europe would be fine after a U.S. departure. When history actually provides very little support for that idea,” Brands said. “There’s long been this tendency to try to remain aloof from problems in other regions, and we saw that before World War II.”

It has long been argued that U.S. reluctance to involve itself in European affairs in the lead-up to World War II emboldened Adolf Hitler to execute his ambitions largely unchecked by the U.S. or its British and French allies, ultimately costing the Allies greatly. 

“President Trump has said that the U.S. should not be involved in Ukraine because there’s an ocean between the U.S. and Europe. And that’s very reminiscent of American involvement you heard from the anti-interventionists in the 1930s.”

Vance has rejected the “isolationist” label and said during his address at the Quincy Institute, “The fact that I oppose sending money that we don’t have to another country, or that borrowing money to send it is somehow, to me, that’s not isolationism.

“That’s just fiscal conservatism.” 

Our guests this week are Isabella Lövin, Swedish MEP from the Greens, Fidias Panayiotou, Cypriot independent MEP and Sigrid Friis, a lawmaker from Renew Europe. 

Broadcasting from the European Parliament in Strasbourg, we hear what MEPs hope to achieve in the next five years.

“My followers, first of all, want to understand the European Union”, YouTuber turned politician Fidias told the panel.

The 24-year-old confessed to the panel he doesn’t know anything about politics, but wants to focus on a topic close to his heart — education. He spent the week creating video content for his millions of followers and even hitchhiked from Brussels to France.

Fighting climate change is the major goal of 29-year-old Sigrid Friis, from Denmark. 

“I have to stop the import of Russian gas and oil into the European energy system. Fighting climate change can easily go hand-in-hand with ensuring competitiveness”, she said.  

For Isabella Lövin, Sweden’s former climate minister who’s now an MEP for the second time, backtracking on green policies would be a disaster. The Greens are very popular in her country and industry is on board with climate targets, she said.

“This is really a crucial time to move forward”, she said. “We don’t know what will happen in the elections in the US now and later in this year. So the EU will be very, very important”. 

Watch “Brussels, my love?” in the player above.

TROON, Scotland (AP) — Shane Lowry was a surprising model of calm amid all the calamity in the British Open on Friday.

Lowry was not immune from the endless punishment Royal Troon dished out on a day when Tiger Woods missed another cut, along with nine of the top 20 players in the world — including Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg and Bryson DeChambeau.

He was close to losing his cool with a photographer who distracted him, a shot into the gorse bush, a beautiful provisional shot to the 11th green that didn’t count when his lost ball became found and a double bogey that wiped out his two-shot lead.

Lowry steadied himself with two birdies on the last three holes for a 2-under 69, leaving him in a familiar position as he chases that silver claret jug he first won at Royal Portrush five years ago. He had a two-shot lead over Justin Rose and Daniel Brown going into the weekend.

“I was in control of my ball, did all the right things for a lot of the round. Then when I got in a bit of trouble, I feel like I really finished the round well,” Lowry said. “I’m pretty happy with the day. To be leading this tournament after two days, it’s why you come here. It’s why we’re here.”

The shocker at Royal Troon — there were a lot of them Friday — was how many of the top players were leaving.

DeChambeau, the U.S Open champion with top 10s in all the majors this year, managed only one birdie in a round of 75. McIlroy would have needed anything under par, and those hopes ended with a triple bogey 8 on his fourth hole. He shot 75.

“I’d much rather have a disappointing Sunday than going home on Friday,” said McIlroy, who was coming off a late collapse that cost him the U.S. Open.

Woods had a 77 to miss the cut in his third straight major, this one by eight shots. His 36-hole score of 156 matched his highest as a pro.

Lowry was at 7-under 135, and only nine other players remained under par after two days of havoc-wreaking wind off the Irish Sea.

Brown, playing in his first major championship, held it together for a 72 that puts him in the final group on the weekend with Lowry. Rose wasn’t even sure he would be at Troon until he went through 36-hole qualifying at the start of the month. He went 29 holes before finally making a bogey, and then he finished strong for a 68.

Masters champion Scottie Scheffler found a pot bunker off the tee at the downwind 18th and made bogey, but otherwise was solid as ever for another 70. He was tied for fourth just five shots behind, along with Billy Horschel (68) and Dean Burmester (69).

“I know tomorrow is going to be a long day, but I’ve done it before,” Lowry said. “For me, it’s just about going out and playing my own game, shooting the best score I can. Try not to worry about what other people are doing and just trying to take care of your own personal stuff.”

It was best to keep blinders on at Royal Troon. There were some harrowing scenes.

Justin Thomas, who opened with a 68 to get himself in the mix, shot a 45 on the front nine and played his best golf from there to salvage a 78 and make sure he at least made the cut.

Robert MacIntyre had an even tougher start. Scotland’s biggest star after winning his national Open last week, MacIntyre was stuck in pot bunkers and high grass. He was 8 over for his round through four holes — four holes! — and then played 4 under the rest of the way for a remarkable 75 to make the cut.

The cut was at 6-over 148.

Aguri Iwasaki had them all beat. He took a 9 on consecutive holes and shot 52 on the back nine for a 91. One of those 9s was on the par-3 14th, where he took four shots out of two bunkers and once had to go backward toward the fairway.

McIlroy, who started with a 78, needed a good start and instead got a triple bogey. He barely moved the ball out of thick grass on the par-5 fourth. Once he got back to the fairway, he pulled another shot into the rough, chipped that into the bunker and ended the sad tale by missing a 4-foot putt.

“Once I made the 8 on the fourth hole that was it — 22 holes into the event and I’m thinking about where I’m going to go on vacation next week,” McIlroy said.

PGA champion Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay were in the group at 1-under 141.

Another shot back was Joaquin Niemann. He had another 71 despite taking a quintuple-bogey 8 on the par-3 eighth hole — the Postage Stamp — that measures a mere 123 yards. He was in three bunkers around the tiny green and three-putted when he finally got out of them. Niemann also made six birdies in a most remarkable round of level par.

So much chaos across the century-old links, and it looked for a brief moment like Lowry might take part. He was in the right rough, but he was distracted by a photographer and angry at himself for not backing off the shot that he tugged left toward a clump of gorse.

Figuring it would be lost in the prickly mess, Lowry hit a provisional for a lost ball onto the green, a terrific shot. One problem. Someone found the ball. It was no longer lost, so the provisional ball was not in play.

Lowry took a penalty drop from the bush, going back to find a place where he had a swing, put it short of the green, chipped on and salvaged a double bogey 6.

“To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a 6. It wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament,” Lowry said.

And now comes a big opportunity for Lowry to reclaim that claret jug. He’s not alone in the chase, especially with Troon’s ability to make anyone look silly. Scheffler has quietly avoided some of those moments.

“I’ve played two solid rounds and it put me five shots back, and I’ll continue to try to execute and just continue to try to hit good shots and hit good putts,” Scheffler said, making it all sound so simple on a day when nothing felt easy.

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf