The ongoing race to capture The White House in the US is significant for many reasons for many different actors. Many in the US are interested in it because of the fundamental shifts in the domestic arena that they expect to see happening in case of the Republican candidate winning the election.
Harris’ victory, on the other hand, signals continuity from the Biden era. For the rest of the world, what matters more than the US domestic arena is how the two candidates position themselves vis-à-vis key issues of US foreign policy and whether or not there will be a massive ‘shake up’. Will Trump be more conservative in his outlook to follow a more inward policy in line with the ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda? Will Harris be more aggressive in expanding the outreach of US foreign policy in line with Biden’s ‘America is back’ agenda? In other words, will Harris continue to deploy hard power worldwide as an instrument of foreign policy?
Shake-Up and Continuity
It appears that the election of Trump or Harris as a president will have little qualitative effect on US foreign policy insofar as both seem to carry their specific foreign policy baggage that can cause equal destruction. If Trump has promised to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he also stands to adopt a more aggressive approach towards Iran and China. If Harris indicated a ‘stricter’ approach towards Israel to end the war, she........