Kentuckians need to understand how foreign policy affects their lives | Opinion

By the common wisdom, midterm elections rarely turn on foreign policy and local elections never turn on foreign policy. We should retire that wisdom. This campaign season questions of foreign policy and international society have come home to the Commonwealth and are having a very real impact on the lives of Kentuckians. What should candidates be saying and doing about foreign policy, and what should voters expect from them?

Tariffs

Trump administration tariff policy looms large over the Commonwealth. Properly executed, tariffs could spur re-industrialization in Kentucky and neighboring states, although this is at best a long-distance prospect that will involve considerable pain for consumers paying higher prices for imported goods.

In the short and medium-term tariffs can redraw trade relationships in ways deeply damaging for export-oriented industries. Agricultural tariffs, for example, have already undercut export prospects for soy, as foreign countries seek non-tariff partners for their own exports.

Tariffs can also damage existing industry. Toyota Motors Manufacturing of Kentucky exists because non-tariff barriers in the 1980s made it imperative for Japanese companies to invest in America. Moreover, the automobile industry is deeply vulnerable to tariffs because of complex supply chains that rely on imports of parts and raw materials. Combined with aggressive immigration enforcement (as seen in Georgia), tariffs can decimate new investment and sour global relations.

Tariffs and the bad feelings generated by the tariff war have undercut bourbon exports, especially to Canada. Among several reasons for its current decline, bourbon is particularly vulnerable to international shocks because it can be replaced by similar (albeit not as tasty) products from other countries.

Military Technology

Kentucky isn’t normally associated with the cutting edge of defense technology, which is a shame because we should be. The defense industrial base (DIB) has a strong presence in the Commonwealth, especially around Lexington, and especially in the field of aerospace technology. Changes in defense acquisition patterns, driven largely by the Wars of October 7 and the Russia-Ukraine War, will necessarily affect every part of the country that depends on defense spending. If Kentucky is to stay on the cutting edge, it needs to create a welcoming space for the most advanced technology startups, as well as for the legacy companies that currently bring jobs and investment to the Commonwealth.

USAID

Kentucky agriculture will feel the impact of the end of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for many years. While the agency was dedicated to foreign aid, much of the money allocated was spent on agricultural products grown in the United States, including Kentucky. Kentucky farmers participated in the Food for Peace program, which exported food to war-torn areas in the hopes of eliminating the sources of conflict. While statistics on the impact of the dismantlement of USAID are hard to come by, the elimination of the export program will undoubtedly affect some Kentucky farmers, especially those who grow crops such as soybeans which are well-suited to export.

Education

Higher education isn’t usually thought of as a foreign policy issue. However, over the last several decades colleges and universities have brought in an ever-increasing number of international students, which has allowed for the growth of the industry while creating a richer experience for their American counterparts. Altogether universities across the Commonwealth enrolled just over 10,000 students for the 2024 academic year.

While Kentucky universities and colleges have not yet come under extraordinary scrutiny from the administration, President Trump’s vision for higher education is far less welcoming of international students, with some proposals calling for a hard enrollment cap. Changes to immigration policy have also made it less attractive for international students to try to attend a US university. Given the upcoming “enrollment cliff,” cuts to international enrollment represent a dire threat to the small colleges that dot the Commonwealth and that serve as the heart of local communities.

Civic responsibilities

Public servants have responsibilities to their constituents. The first is to listen. Foreign policy paints in broad strokes, and each community or industry may feel those impacts differently. If members of a community say they’re in trouble because of tariffs, listen to what they have to say. At the same time, foreign policy is deeply complex, and it may not be immediately obvious that unemployment in Kentucky has its roots in agricultural policy in Brazil. It is incumbent upon the public servant to be aware of these relationships and to do their best to explain their impact.

Voters also have responsibilities. They need to educate themselves on the issues and on the relationships and deep causes that underlie those issues. Just as important, they need to hold public servants to account for representation on the issues that affect communities across Kentucky. Public servants will only begin to pay attention to foreign policy when constituents force them to do so.

Dr. Robert Farley has taught security and diplomacy courses at the Patterson School since 2005. He is the author of “Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force” (University Press of Kentucky, 2014), “The Battleship Book” (Wildside, 2016), and Patents for Power: Intellectual Property Law and the Diffusion of Military Technology (University of Chicago, 2020). Dr. Farley is also a founder and senior editor of Lawyers, Guns and Money.