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Which US presidential candidate do you think has the best foreign policy?
The nice thing about electability being uncertain is that you can choose the candidate you think is best.
Unfortunately I have lost faith in my ability to decide that. Studying candidates' policies seems useless since, after all, Congress makes the laws. We are likely to see either stalemate or centrist legislation regardless.
Maybe I should decide based on foreign policy instead? Most people don't do that but I don't see why not. Any recommendations for interesting articles to read?
Will the 2020 Candidates End Our Pointless Wars? (The American Conservative)
The Problem at the Core of Progressive Foreign Policy (The Atlantic)
Joe Biden Jumped at the Chance to Help George W. Bush Sell the Invasion of Iraq (Jacobin Magazine)
Bernie's Outsider on the Inside (Part of an entire series covering the Democratic primary candidates from Foreign Policy)
The Stark Difference Between Sanders and Bloomberg on Israel (Truthdig)
Pete Buttigieg Is No Foreign Policy Maverick (New Republic)
The American Conservative link is a good question for the candidates, though it doesn't mention any by name.
[Still reading the other articles. I decided to put quotes from each article in a separate comment.]
That article illustrates the costs of the blob's endless wars. It is relevant to put the long term picture into perspective, especially since foreign policy is where the President has the most discretion and influence on government policies.
From the Atlantic article:
Wait, what? But then again, I guess it makes sense as a rare bipartisan initiative. Nice!
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The Jacobin article is a book excerpt from a forthcoming book: Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden
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In 1990:
Although this is the case against, the main thing I'm getting from this is that Biden has seen a lot, at times being for or against war.
For a relatively even-handed review of the candidates' foreign policy positions, the New York Times issued a questionnaire that all the then-extant candidates could respond to.
I've gotta say, I like Elizabeth Warren's answers here because she actually answered the questions, instead of fobbing the process off on staff, as Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and others apparently did.
Sadly I think all the candidates are weak on foreign policy. At the very least I would trust all of them to not muck up relations with our allies like Trump does. He gutted the State Department and our foreign policy is in horrible shape because of it, but none of the dem candidates are really excited to release policy platforms for how they'll reform diplomacy. You'll have to sift through what info is available (for example, their stances on israel) and choose whichever candidate aligns with your values. Basically you and I are nerds for an issue most voters don't care about, so candidates have little incentive to make and release policies.
Exactly. The last thing that voters care about is what happens outside their country's border. Fix domestic stuff first, then start looking outside.
-Neville Chamberlain, probably
The biggest issue with isolationism, if that if you don't take interest in foreign affairs, foreign affairs will take interest in you.
What sort of foreign policies do they even have? All the superficial headline info I'm getting is about Bernie's "socialism" and Yang's UBI.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/responsible-foreign-policy/
It's a stub relative to some of the bigger plans he's laid out, but he is definitely on the side of 'end the endless wars.'
Exactly. I'm sure they have some, though. It seems like an interesting topic for discussion and research.