LEFT: President Donald J. Trump walks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, along the Colonnade of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead) RIGHT: President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy walk along the West Colonnade of the White House, Thursday, September 21, 2023, to the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz).
It’s unusual that Americans make foreign policy their primary concern in presidential elections and rare that it becomes a hot topic in televised debates. Jeremi Suri suggests at Foreign Policy that tonight’s debate may hinge more on the candidates’ positions on international affairs than is usual. Suri writes:
This year’s first presidential debate will be different—perhaps unlike any previous one. Although restraint and humility are anathema to Trump, he and his supporters have staked out a foreign-policy position that challenges Biden’s mainstream goals. The current president has forcefully defended NATO and other traditional American alliances, he has condemned Russian aggression, he has supported extensive military assistance to Ukraine, and he has spoken eloquently of Washington’s traditional role as a promoter of democracy around the world. These positions would be familiar to past presidents. Since 2021 Trump has hammered at these positions more than any candidate (and former president) since Herbert Hoover, condemning American alliances; apologizing for Russian aggression; rejecting military assistance to Ukraine; and, most stunning, denying that the United States should care even about spreading democracy abroad.
The contrast between Biden’s internationalism and Trump’s isolationism is starker than at any moment in the history of televised presidential debates. They differ fundamentally on American interests, threats, and opportunities. If the language of foreign-policy debates in the past focused on who could pursue shared aims with more strength, the current rhetoric circulates around what those aims should be: a global America or a fortress America.
The one major foreign-policy area where the candidates agree, and will argue about execution rather than goals, is protecting American businesses from unfair foreign competition, particularly from China, through tariffs and other protectionist measures. Free trade, a cornerstone of American foreign policy until at least 2012, has been rejected by both candidates. They will argue over who is better at protecting U.S. industries, especially in swing states, not opening markets or working with the widely reviled World Trade Organization.
Beyond trade, and unlike most previous presidential debates, fundamental foreign-policy goals will likely be a major topic on stage for Biden and Trump. The moderators will almost certainly ask about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and the responses from the candidates will reveal the depth of their differences over core concepts in American foreign policy.
Biden will defend American support for Ukraine as essential for the Western alliance and global democracy. He will condemn Trump for denying threats to American security from Russia and China, undermining U.S. credibility abroad, and abandoning the global defense of democracy. Biden will take credit for restoring American power and prestige, and he will paint a picture of a new cold war where the United States can and must lead, on the model of the last 70 years.
Trump will deny all of this and condemn the defenders of mainstream foreign-policy goals as traitors. He will argue for American strength, but in nakedly unilateralist terms. He will also deny American interests defending Ukraine, NATO, and other allies. He will emphasize transactional arrangements with dictators—in Russia, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and sometimes China—that offer immediate benefits to Americans at home. And he will promise to use overwhelming military force, including nuclear weapons, when it suits the United States alone.
The fundamental differences between Biden and Trump will be clearest when asked about the war in Gaza. Biden articulates the traditional American position of strong support for Israel and advocacy for the human rights of Palestinians through a two-state solution. Trump rejects any serious political voice for the Palestinians, and his support for Israel is more militaristic. He has no desire to act as an honest broker in the troubled region. Trump is the first serious presidential candidate to seek a one-state solution, with little or no Palestinian representation.
No one can predict how voters will react to these arguments in Thursday’s debate, but we can expect a very different foreign-policy debate from any one before. Although domestic issues will likely take up more time, foreign-policy questions will be prominent, and they will elucidate some key policy differences, beyond rhetoric and posturing alone. The candidates offer two distinct foreign policies, and that should be evident in the debate, as never before.
Read more here.
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