Despite the media’s best efforts to keep us guessing, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are now the overwhelming favorites to represent the Democratic and Republican parties in the presidential election in the fall.
And as Donald Trump’s speech last week made clear, they represent two very different potential trajectories for America’s future global role.
Indeed, I believe that no election in recent times has so clearly presented American voters with such a stark choice when it comes to U.S. foreign policy. No longer does politics stop “at the water’s edge” in a bipartisan spirit.
So what are the major differences?
America’s Foreign Policy Orthodoxy
Hillary Clinton’s views are embedded in an orthodoxy that has been the bedrock of U.S. foreign policy since the end of World War II.
First, according to this orthodoxy, as the dominant power, America has both a right and responsibility to act as a global leader. Rightly or wrongly, politicians think that foreigners crave American leadership as a bedrock assumption—and nothing important gets done without it.
Leadership entails setting the global agenda whenever possible. That means being active rather than reactive. And that active agenda is comprehensive.
