Whether that may be Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton... whoever coming into the Oval Office
come November...
inherits a complex set of global challenges on multiple fronts, including security and
the economy.
Our Park Ji-won sat down with a U.S. foreign policy expert for his take on what to expect.
In this election cycle, for the first time in a generation, the outcome could challenge
America's post-war consensus of internationalism,... with the potential to radically alter U.S.
policies towards the rest of the world.
Since the start of the primary campaign,...
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has staked out unorthodox positions on foreign
policy issues;... for example, to aggressively renegotiate free trade pacts with other countries,...
and to reexamine long-standing alliance agreements like NATO and the defense pact with South
Korea... to achieve what Trump calls a fairer deal for America.
U.S. foreign policy expert and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations Scott
Snyder has a name for Trump's approach:...
"economic transactionalism."
And he says it's not necessarily based on the existing framework of alliances.
"Candidate Trump's world view is really what I'd call economic transactionalism.
Whether it's relations with China or with Europe, or with Japan or Korea, he seems to
be judging whether or not the U.S. is doing well by economic terms, not necessarily focused
on prior relationships or alliances.
So I think this is proving to be a confusing approach to many people in the rest of the
world.
It appears to constitute an abandonment of the traditional American global leadership
role in return for something that is much more focused on a narrow conception of U.S.
national interests."
As for Hillary Clinton,...
Snyder expects that she'd pursue a foreign policy based on that of the previous administration,....
despite her apparent change of view regarding free trade deals.
"I think candidate Clinton largely would represent a kind of incrementalist approach.
She would build on the foundation that has been laid by the Obama administration.
She has emphasized the importance of our alliance relationship with Japan and with South Korea.
She definitely has a skeptical view with regard to North Korea, and I think that the Clinton
administration would want to pursue North Korea's denuclearization.
Some advisers have sided with the Iran experience of President Obama as a possible pathway that
could be applied to North Korea."
The CFR senior fellow noted that U.S. history has at times seen fundamental changes in foreign
policy, but often seemingly transformational candidates are constrained by circumstances.
"For instance, candidate Reagan wanted to shift relations back from China to Taiwan
in his campaign, but then, when he came into office, he moved forward with a relatively
newly normalized relationship with China.
Candidate Carter pledged to remove U.S. troops from Korea, but he ended up not doing that,
as a result of opposition from the government and also his own advisers."
But this is an unconventional election.
When voters go to the polls in November, they will determine the foreign policy direction
that the U.S. will take for years to come.
Park Ji-won, Arirang News.