Foreign policy in the 2012 Presidential election

By Larry Fuell, Director

Global Affairs Center, Shoreline Community College

“Foreign policy is taking on new urgency in the presidential campaign,” according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. The writer went on to say President Obama is preparing “to address the United Nations amid a resurgence of unrest in the Muslim world.”

That same day, both President Obama and his rival, Mitt Romney, addressed the Clinton Global Initiative. The confluence prompted Andrew Rosenthal to place tongue firmly in cheek and declare in his New York Times Editorial Page Editor’s Blog that Sept. 25, 2012 must be “foreign policy day on the campaign trail.”

It is widely believed by political scientists and policy wonks that candidates’ positions on foreign policy do not have much influence on citizens’ votes.  Certainly, foreign policy issues seem more important in some Presidential elections than others – 1960, 1964, 1968 come to mind.  But even in those years, foreign policy was rarely mentioned as the primary reason why voters chose one candidate over another.

More recently, during the 2008 Democratic primaries, the question of which candidate would be better prepared to respond effectively to an international crisis in the middle of the night was raised by one of the candidates, but then quickly forgotten.

So foreign policy doesn’t seem to be a major factor in how people vote.  However, elections, or rather the electoral process with its emphasis on images and sound-bites, does seem to influence how foreign policy issues are framed, how foreign policy is conducted and how foreign policy is seen by others outside the U.S.

The Global Affairs Center at Shoreline Community College is sponsoring a series of free daytime and evening discussions that focus on the question: “How do electoral politics, especially in a Presidential election year, affect the way in which the U.S. interacts with the rest of the world?”

On four consecutive evenings starting on October 10, participants will hear from experts regarding U.S. foreign policy in two critical regions, China and Europe, and in two major policy areas, trade policy and defense policy.  The four daytime events will include a Washington State Supreme Court Justice who will discuss the balance between liberty and security in the age of terrorism.

Again, all eight events are free and open to the public.

For more information regarding these programs, including the topics and speakers on specific dates, visit the Global Affairs Center website.

Shoreline Community College is located at 16101 Greenwood Avenue North, west of Aurora Avenue. Directions and a map for the campus. Metered parking available on campus.