They talked about the financial crisis. They talked about Iraq, Venezuela, Iran, and Russia, and about restoring America’s respect in the world. So granted, McCain and Obama provided answers on several important foreign policy issues facing our country today.
But what about trade? What about development? What about democracy promotion? What about the catastrophic failure of the Doha Round at the WTO? The complete omission of these topics from the so-called “foreign policy” debate borders on negligence. Of course American voters may not be interested in such topics (do they understand the significance of Doha?), but the job of the moderator and indeed the candidates is to hold themselves to a higher standard. Besides, if we want to fight global terrorism, or prevent a global economic recession, or restore our respect in the world, we could start by rewarding our allies with trade deals, supporting third world development, ensuring that responsible democracies have the resources to survive their perilous first years, and, above all, by committing ourselves to the vitally important Doha Round of trade talks at the WTO. These issues may not have the Cold War glamor of confronting Russia, or the “I told you so” quality of the Iraq question, but they are just as, or more, important to the future safety, security, and prosperity of our country.
I completely agree that those are some of the most relevant (if not more relevant) issues of foreign policy today. Especially if you look historically, trade has played an important role in establishing world stability. Many scholars attribute the tensions leading up to World War II to the record high trade tariffs that existed in the world at that time.
However, I think the fact of the matter is that it is very difficult for trade issues to be framed in this context. Foreign policy is too often considered only in relation to physical safety, which leads to discussions exclusively of issues like the Iraq War, the War on Terror and how to establish better relations with Russia, Venezuela and Iran.
I think trade issues will be brought up in the economics debate, and hopefully one of the candidates will be estute enough to make the important association with foreign policy.