Did Vice President Kamala Harris “Human Rights Hawk,” Who Will Use American Power to Promote Democracy and Freedom Abroad? or she is a “Pragmatic Internationalist“Who will step back from American hegemony? Is she ready The end of the era of American hubris And restore modesty to our foreign policy? or from her forceful rhetoric on America’s role in the world”Inner Reagan“?
With two months to go before the presidential election, speculation is rife about what the “Harris Doctrine” for foreign policy might look like, but it often seems that the speculator wants (or doesn’t want) the next thing any Harris articulates. president than a certain worldview.
It’s not like the vice president doesn’t have a track record to check. While some coverage has depicted her Something of a foreign-policy neophyteWill come with her to the office A more global experience Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama or Donald Trump.
As vice president, she has Met with dozens of world leadersRepresented the US at global gatherings, and Attended the President’s daily intelligence briefing. In her Democratic National Convention address, she emphasized the fact that she was a briefer to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on US intelligence just days before the Russian invasion in Munich in 2022.
The administration has also taken note of its role A recent prisoner swap with Russia. She too was involved In Southeast Asia, particularly in US efforts to strengthen ties with the Philippines. And yet she was not “Border CzarShe is sometimes featured in attack ads, she “root causesof Aided Migration in Central America.
It is difficult to determine how it can differ From the Biden administration, which is trying to downplay all the “Harris theory” speculation. When it comes down to it, analysis often comes down to — to use The buzzword Vibes of the moment.
Same message, new tone
Recently time feature On Harris’s record on Ukraine, Ukrainian officials acknowledged that she was engaged on the issue and expressed sympathy for the country’s plight, but one official described it as “formal sympathy following protocol”.
In a recent episode of The Ezra Klein Show podcast, the host speculated that as a child of immigrants with a more global perspective, Harris “doesn’t identify” with Israel that Americans of Joe Biden’s generation do. But that’s not at all how Harris describes her own upbringing. In a 2017 speech to the right-wing American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). she reminded As a child in the Bay Area, she collected donations for the Jewish National Fund to plant trees in Israel. In 2019, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Described her Senate record Refers to a more left-leaning “pro-peace” lobbying group, as “more AIPAC than J Street”.
When it comes to how Harris may differ, however subtly, from Biden, perhaps no issue, foreign or domestic, has garnered more attention than the war in Gaza.
Haley Soifer, who served as Harris’s national security adviser in the Senate and is now director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, told Vox that when it comes to policy on Israel and Gaza, there is very little day between the two.
“I think the policy is not going to change,” she said. “What we’ve seen is some difference when Vice President Harris not only reiterates his commitment to Israel and its security when he talks about the conflict, but also expresses a great deal of sympathy for innocent Palestinian civilians.”
This was reflected in Directed comments Harris called for a cease-fire at the civil rights memorial in Selma, Alabama in March (his remarks Report watered down by administration officials) as well as in her convention speech. As my colleague Zach Beauchamp wrote, that speech didn’t particularly diverge from Biden’s talking points but did, Rhetorically at least, present “Palestinian aspirations for self-determination as the moral climax of her discussion of the issue.”
of slate Fred Kaplan reports Sources close to Harris say she “confidentially disagrees [Biden’s] Framing world politics as a contest between democracy and autocracy … and sees that as overly simplistic and even misleading, given the kind of allies we are sometimes forced to choose.” The Biden administration has been Criticized by some observers Mainly to focus on the “Global South” in terms of competition with Russia and China.
Perhaps this reflects some desire to move beyond framing, Harris made the remarks at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year That when visiting countries in Africa, she was constantly asked, “‘Are you here because of China?’ And my answer was, ‘No, we are here because of the people of Africa.’
Why campaign promises don’t tell us much about Harris’s actual policies
It is also quite possible that Harris’s worldview and foreign policy rhetoric are only evolving. Senator who said in 2020“I clearly agree with the goal of reducing the defense budget and redirecting funds to communities in need” is now the vice president who “pledges to ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”
Ultimately, campaign rhetoric will only tell you how the president will conduct foreign policy. Some analysts have noted that, as a senator, Harris favored reducing support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, and “Basically a reassessment” US-Saudi relations as a candidate in 2020. But then again, Biden promised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the campaign trail that “Pariah” before placing Cooperation with the country At the heart of his Middle East policy.
It’s not just that campaign talk is cheap, it’s that, as noted international relations theorist Mike Tyson has said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
George W. Bush came into office promising a “modest” foreign policy that avoided a nation-building crusade. 9/11 changed that.
Obama first identified himself as an opponent of US militarism in the Middle East but will be remembered for expanding the US drone war, the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and helping to overthrow the Libyan government.
Biden’s foreign policy legacy will largely be determined by his response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the October 7 attack.
“Foreign policy priorities, in every administration, are largely determined by events,” Soifer said.
If there is a “Harris Doctrine,” we will learn what it is only if we see him as president.
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