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 The governor of Wisconsin, Walker is best known for his victory
over unions in his state. Republicans generally do not put him in
the category of a strategic foreign policy thinker.
But he has been brushing up.
This was evident on a campaign bus tour across Iowa this weekend and
on earlier stops in South Carolina.
Walker, 47, last week became the 15th candidate to seek the 2016
Republican presidential nomination. He, former Florida Governor Jeb
Bush and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida are among the early
front-runners in polling for the November 2016 election.
Walker saw no need for diplomatic niceties in response to the Iran
nuclear deal that President Barack Obama announced last week with
Tehran: He would terminate it as soon as possible and persuade U.S.
allies to join Washington in imposing more crippling economic
sanctions on Tehran.
"This is not a country we should be doing business with," he said in
Davenport, Iowa, reminding the crowd of Iran's holding of 52
American hostages in 1979. "This is one of the leading state
sponsors of terrorism."
 Walker would also be more confrontational with both Russia over its
aggression against Ukraine and against China, for the territorial
pressures Beijing is putting on U.S. allies in the South China Sea.
He would dramatically increase U.S. military spending after budget
cuts that have drawn complaints from military officials.
"The United States needs a foreign policy that puts steel in the
face of our enemies," Walker says.
LEADER IN KEY STATE OF IOWA
His hawkish views are welcome among conservatives who dominate the
Republican Party in Iowa and who may award him with a victory in the
Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, the first nominating contest on the road to
the election.
Walker leads in Iowa and needs a win to gain momentum in the
contests that follow, like Feb. 9 in New Hampshire, where his
standing is not as strong.
"What he said is exactly what we need to do," said Judy Jamison of
Bettendorf, Iowa, after hearing Walker speak in Davenport. "He's
shown in Wisconsin that he's not going to be intimidated."
One of Walker's most prominent early missteps was a statement that
his fight against the unions in Wisconsin had girded him for the
battle against Islamic State.
He also said the biggest national security decision by 1980s
President Ronald Reagan - who is credited with adopting policies
that helped win the Cold War - was his move to fire air traffic
controllers at U.S. airports.
All of this raised eyebrows among the Republican foreign policy
professional class in Washington. Walker took steps to beef up his
foreign policy knowledge.
He now gets daily briefings about what is going on abroad. His
national security adviser is Mike Gallagher, a Middle East expert
who had worked for Republican U.S. Senator Bob Corker, one of the
leading voices in the party on national security. Former U.S.
Senator Jim Talent is also an adviser on international relations.
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OPEN TO CRITICISM
Aides said Walker has enjoyed learning more about world hot spots.
But his remarks on the Iran nuclear deal opened him up to criticism.
Bush took issue with Walker's position that he would immediately
jettison the deal, suggesting it lacked maturity. He did not mention
Walker by name but his intention was clear.
"One thing I won't do is just say as a candidate: 'I'm just going to
tear up the agreement on the first day.' That sounds great, but
maybe you ought to check in with your allies first," Bush told
reporters in Carson City, Nevada, on Friday.
He said a secretary of state and a secretary of defense should be
put in place first. "You might want to have your team in place
before you take an act like that," Bush said.
Such talk prompted a rare response from the Walker team to Bush, a
possible prelude to a clash over the issue when the candidates have
their first debate on Aug. 6 in Cleveland.
The Walker campaign blasted out a statement from foreign policy
adviser Robert C. O'Brien that rejected Bush's view without
mentioning him by name.
"We don’t need more information, we don’t need to wait to confirm
the next secretary of state, we need decisive leadership and we need
it now. This won’t be easy, but when America leads, and has a strong
president with clear priorities who believes in American strength,
the rest of the world will follow," O'Brien said.
Republican pollster Frank Luntz, after listening to Walker at a town
hall event in Cedar Rapids, placed Walker's views on national
security in the middle of conservative thinking among presidential
candidates. He said Walker is between U.S. Senator Rand Paul of
Kentucky, who would limit U.S. engagement overseas, and U.S. Senator
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who favors more U.S. intervention.
"He's dead center," Luntz told Reuters. "That's what the public is
thinking right now. That’s what Republicans are thinking. There is a
general fear among Americans that we are weaker today than we were
five years ago, and we’re going to be weaker still."
(Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller)
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