Foreign Policy and Demilitarization
The bipartisan endless war machine enriches military contractors, lobbyists, and politicians, while it fuels devastation around the world and impoverishes our own people. The Pentagon budget consumes over half of the discretionary federal budget, and real US military spending is over $1 trillion dollars per year. The military-industrial complex, aided by its accomplices in both war parties, media, intelligence agencies, and beyond, has become a global empire that is profoundly destructive around the world and here at home.
Everyone has a human right to live in peace and dignity, free from violence and oppression. We must end the endless wars and create a new foreign policy based on diplomacy, international law, and human rights to lead the way to a new era of peace and cooperation.
A Jill Stein administration will:
- Establish a foreign policy based on diplomacy, international law, and human rights
- End existing wars, military actions, proxy wars and secret wars
- Cut military spending by 50-75% and ensure a just transition that replaces military jobs with Green New Deal jobs
- Invest the peace dividend in a Global Green New Deal to prevent climate collapse, and build toward universal access to basic human needs for food, clean water and sanitation, education, and health care for every human being on Earth
- Close the vast majority of the 700+ foreign US military bases
- Stop U.S. support and arms sales to human rights abusers
- Lead on global nuclear disarmament
- End unilateral economic sanctions that primarily harm civilian populations
- Remove war powers from the president and restore Congress’ sole power to declare war
- Disband NATO and replace it with a modern, inclusive security framework that respects the security interests of all nations and people
- Demand an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Palestine, an end to the blockade of Gaza, immediate humanitarian and medical relief, and release of hostages and political prisoners
- Immediately end all military aid to Israel and adopt sanctions until Israel complies with international law to put an end to decades of violence, illegal occupation, displacement, dispossession, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing
- End the longstanding US practice of vetoing UN Security Council resolutions to hold Israel accountable to international law
- Move to end the UN Security Council to ensure the UN is a true democratic body
- Remove U.S. troops from Iraq and Syria
- Stop fueling the war between Russia and Ukraine and lead on negotiating a peaceful end
- End the embargo of Cuba and normalize relations
- End sanctions on Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela that amount to collective punishment of civilian populations
- End US interventionist policies that drive people to become migrant refugees
- End the failed drug wars and stop regime change attempts against foreign governments
- Ban the use of killer drones, robots, and artificial intelligence
- Close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp
- Ensure family-supporting wages and benefits for military service members
- Fully fund veterans’ programs and benefits, including healthcare, mental health, housing, and job training, for a transition to civilian life
- Protect the rights of service members, including conscientious objectors
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.