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 Advisers say a key part of the Cuban-American's election strategy
for 2016 will be a "peace-through-strength" global view based on
increased defense spending.
To highlight his foreign affairs credentials, Rubio, 43, a
first-term senator from Florida, will announce his bid for the
Republican nomination with a speech at Miami's Freedom Tower, where
thousands of Cuban exiles fleeing the communist-run island in the
1960s were first registered by U.S. authorities.
His support registers in single digits in opinion polls on likely
Republican contenders, but aides believe Rubio, who was on 2012
nominee Mitt Romney's short list for vice president, will rise when
voters take a closer look at him.
Rubio's attempt to capture the campaign spotlight came as Hillary
Clinton declared her candidacy on Sunday for the Democratic
presidential nomination in a video announcement that grabbed
worldwide media attention.
 Clinton, a former secretary of state, will hit the campaign trail in
Iowa on Tuesday and Wednesday. Iowa holds the kickoff contest in the
parties' presidential nominating process early next year.
Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Affairs and Intelligence
committees, is expected to lay out a vision of American leadership
in a world menaced by Islamist extremism and authoritarian
governments from Russia to China and Iran.
On domestic policy, he backs the classic Republican remedies of
small government and low taxes, and an end to President Barack
Obama's healthcare law.
Rubio takes some of his foreign policy advice from a group of
neo-conservatives linked to the administration of former President
George W. Bush. One senior aide, Jamie Fly, argued in a 2012
magazine article for "regime change" in Iran, bringing back memories
of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
GROWING REPUBLICAN FIELD
Rubio becomes the third major Republican figure to announce his
candidacy, after Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, another Cuban-American,
and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. The Republican field is expected
to grow considerably, likely including former Florida Governor Jeb
Bush, a one-time mentor to Rubio, who will rival him for votes and
donor money in primary states.
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Rubio's national security stance could attract primary voters in key
conservative states such as South Carolina, one of the early voting
states in the primary season. Conservatives are wary, however, of
his prominent role in drafting a broad immigration bill in 2013,
although he has since backed off a comprehensive reform effort.
With Clinton the early favorite to be the Democratic nominee, the
eventual winner of the Republican race needs to be sharp on world
affairs.
Reversing recent "sequestration" spending cuts on the U.S. military
is a main component of Rubio's foreign policy. One of Rubio's top
outside advisers on defense spending, Eric Edelman, was a senior
Pentagon official and aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. He says he
regularly briefs the senator.
"It's mostly about defense, but I've talked to him about the
authorization of military force. I've talked to him about the
campaign against ISIS, about Russia and Ukraine. There's not a
shortage of issues right now," Edelman said.
Rubio is critical of Obama's diplomatic opening to Cuba and strongly
opposes Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government, which he
has described as made up of "thugs."
Elliott Abrams, who also has advised Rubio, said the freshman
senator's Cuban background - his parents came to the United States
in the 1950s - made him more sensitive to issues of freedom abroad.
"The whole question of the expansion of freedom of democracy is of
greater interest to him as a foreign policy theme than it is for
many other people," said Abrams, a former senior diplomat who served
the George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan presidencies.
(Editing by John Whitesides, Leslie Adler and Andre Grenon)
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