Former U.S. Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy delivered a sharp critique of U.S. foreign policy during a recent debate with former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton. While discussing broader geopolitical conflicts involving China, Taiwan, and Ukraine, Ramaswamy shifted focus to Azerbaijan’s aggression in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), which led to the displacement of 120,000 Armenians and the occupation of the region by Azerbaijan.
Ramaswamy accused the U.S. of hypocrisy for its silence on the matter. As of October 2024, one year after these events, Artsakh remains fully occupied by Azerbaijan following its military attack, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and occupation of the region.
Ramaswamy argued that the U.S.’s selective approach to defending democracies weakens its global credibility. He emphasized the importance of strengthening alliances in key regions like Taiwan and India to counter China’s influence. However, he criticized the U.S. for being involved in conflicts, particularly in Ukraine, where he believes there is a lack of clear, realistic objectives. According to Ramaswamy, this spread of American resources into various global conflicts, without clear aims, leaves the U.S. in a weaker position to address other critical international issues.
He then pivoted to the situation in Artsakh, calling out the U.S. for ignoring Azerbaijan’s aggression against the Armenian population: “It’s entirely hypocritical to wear the mantle of just protecting democracies from invasions when we have other situations in the world that we’re otherwise, I expect, not going to talk about today”like Armenia, and like Azerbaijan’s one-sided steamrolling of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, also on the Soviet periphery, where 120,000 Armenian Christians were displaced. The last time I checked, nobody in the United States even stopped to mention it on the news. So, we can’t selectively say and have the moral authority to claim we’re defending democracies, except sometimes, when we’re actually funding Azerbaijan to displace 120,000 Armenian Christians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, but somehow still wear the mantle of defending democracy when it comes to Ukraine.”
Ramaswamy reiterated his point on social media, saying: “It’s interesting that the interventionist ‘we-need-to-spread-democracy’ crowd has absolutely nothing to say about Azerbaijan steamrolling & displacing 120,000 Armenian Christians from Nagorno-Karabakh. That makes their selective outrage a lot less compelling in other instances.”
He questioned why the U.S. selectively chooses to defend certain democracies, such as Ukraine, while turning a blind eye to the plight of Armenian Christians in Artsakh, who have been displaced without any notable response from American leadership or the media.
Ramaswamy’s remarks highlight a growing criticism of U.S. foreign policy for being inconsistent, with concerns that America’s global interventions are driven by strategic interests rather than a genuine commitment to defending democracy worldwide.
