Election 2024: Foreign Policy and America’s place in the world
Allies and adversaries expect change
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - From America’s neighbors Canada and Mexico, to global concerns involving Russia, China, and the Middle East, the two main candidates have far different approaches on how American deals with its allies and its adversaries.
As Donald Trump and Kamala Harris crisscross America, campaigning to be America’s 47th President, the election is
also being watched closely by America’s closest allies, such as Australia.
Kevin Rudd is currently the Australian Ambassador to the United States, but also served as the island nation’s prime minister.
“The bottom line is this - American allies respect the preeminence of American global leadership. Secondly, we understand that in the world today, we need a strong America leading the free world. And thirdly, therefore, from the perspective of Australia, we will therefore work intimately with a democratically elected administration, the United States.”
Australian Ambassador Kevin Rudd anticipates that Trump and Harris would implement far different policies concerning national security and trade.
“Former President Trump and Vice President Harris bring different worldviews to bear. But from the position of a, close American ally, which is Australia, we will work, and work intimately, with whichever administration the American people, select.”
And if Donald Trump wins the White House, one hotspot that he would likely approach differently than Kamala Harris is Russia. Evelyn Farkas is the Executive Director of McCain Institute at the University of Arizona.
“If Donald Trump wins, he’s already made very clear that he doesn’t see the threat posed by Russia to the United States and to our allies and to the world. That is something that is quite unsettling.”
The McCain Institute’s Farkas says both candidates also view alliances like NATO quite differently with Harris stressing the necessity of this defense alliance and Trump questioning America’s leading role in NATO.
“If the United States withdraws from NATO, the entire alliance collapses. If the alliance collapses, Vladimir Putin will not only threaten Ukraine, Vladimir Putin will threaten Poland, Vladimir Putin will try to exercise influence over as much of Europe as he can, certainly Eastern Europe. And that is not a good thing for democracy. That is not a good thing for our capitalist society.”
America’s allies meanwhile, are also preparing for different economic approaches, depending on who wins the White House. Trump has advocated for a policy which would call for increased tariffs on products from overseas. Economists warn that could potentially lead to retaliatory tariffs and a trade war and negatively impact the U.S. economy.
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