Rand Paul's Biggest Challenge if He Wants To Be The GOP Nominee in 2016: FOREIGN POLICY

Republican senator from Kentucky walks fine line between preserving his antiwar base while striking a more hawkish tone

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has long advocated negotiating with Iran over its nuclear-weapons program. Then, last month, he was among the Senate Republicans who signed a letter warning Iran that the next president could discard any nuclear deal.

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The shift points to one of the biggest challenges of Mr. Paul’s newly minted presidential campaign: finding his foreign-policy footing amid mounting instability abroad, while preserving support from libertarians and young people drawn to his antiwar, antiestablishment record.

The Obama administration’s tentative deal with Iran, struck last week, was the latest foreign-policy moment to collide with Mr. Paul’s plans. He didn’t comment publicly until Tuesday’s launch of his 2016 bid, leaving him the last to do so among his likely rivals—some of whom said they would undo it if elected. At his launch, Mr. Paul said he would oppose a deal that didn’t “end Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”

When Mr. Paul began laying the groundwork for his presidential bid a year ago, the freshman senator was leading a growing wave of resistance to foreign intervention. Public sentiment has shifted in recent months amid increasing violence in the Middle East and Ukraine, and Mr. Paul has repositioned himself as more open to military engagement.

Critics among the hawkish wing of the GOP make the case that Mr. Paul’s caution toward an aggressive American security policy—he opposed giving aid to Syrian rebels and wants to rein in surveillance programs—would make him a poor commander in chief. On Tuesday, a little-known group called Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America began airing $1 million in ads featuring his 2007 comment about Iran, when he said, “it’s ridiculous to think they’re a threat to our national security.”

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