Throughout history, foreign policy has been the realm of diplomacy, negotiation and persuasion to advance national interests abroad. This can be seen in the formal powers enshrined in the United States Constitution where the President, as commander in chief of the armed forces, negotiates treaties, appoints ambassadors and acts as spokesperson for and to the world. Even great military leaders like George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower were adept diplomats.
But there are some crucial problems that defy the limits of diplomatic efforts or the limits of a single nation’s power. These include global warming, nuclear proliferation and the spread of terrorism. In these situations, a country can rely on cooperation with other countries to share the costs and risks of action. And it can also imbed its values and interests in institutions that can bind nations to them over decades regardless of the vicissitudes of its own power.
During the debate, Biden and Harris offered competing visions for how to handle these critical challenges. However, their underlying approaches were similar – both advocating for more engagement with the rest of the world, especially U.S. allies and trading partners. Both candidates also shared the concern that America’s declining relative power is causing it to lose its status as the global hegemon. The partisan differences on several issues that reflect this broader anxiety have been shrinking since 2021, when these questions were last asked. However, the issue of finding a solution for the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has emerged as an area where there are large partisan differences in opinion on how to approach this problem.
