In search of Ron DeSantis’s foreign-policy doctrine

One sign of an impending presidential campaign is the appearance of a memoir marketed as a tell-all that, in fact, tells little. On February 28th Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, who many donors think is the party’s best chance to thwart Donald Trump’s re-run for the White House, gave his entry to that literary tradition when he published his book, “The Courage to Be Free”. Mr DeSantis owes his status among Republican primary voters, who are torn (early opinion polls suggest) between him and the former president, to his bare-knuckled prosecution of domestic culture wars around the teaching of critical race theory, covid-19 lockdowns and censorship of conservatives on social media. But while an ambitious governor may concern himself only with a war on wokeness, a president must manage war.