THE US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AND ITS FOREIGN POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Whatever news we wake upto onto the 5th November, the next President of the United States will face a dilemma; do they maintain the outward-looking foreign policy approach adopted by George Bush or do they revert to their pre-1941 isolationism?

On the face of it the answer should be obvious. The foreign policy in tray is close to overfilling. Aside from Iraq and Afghanistan the incoming President will have to decide how to deal with:

—Iran’s determination to acquire nuclear capability;

—North Korea’s resumed nuclear “project”;

—A changing Cuba;

—An increasingly leftist Latin America;

—A restless Russia;

—A rising China; and

—Darfur, turbulence in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

However with the economic crisis and a raft of home-grown issues to tackle the next American President may be drawn into adopting an isolationist stance. This would not only be bad for the world. It would be bad for the States itself.