Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the finalists in the US presidential elections, so it’s important to know exactly how they will lead America.
Here’s a comparison on Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s foreign policy and military strategies:
Trump’s approach to foreign policy seems to be defined by his anti-Islam statements, as he feels Muslim immigrants should be banned from entering America altogether. However, there’s more to Trump’s foreign policy initiative than this outrageous position.
The key aspects of Donald Trump’s approach to international diplomacy and military planning are:
- During a speech on foreign policy, he said, “We must stop importing extremism through senseless immigration policies.” Whatever that means, of course!
- His main foreign policy goal will be to halt the spread of “radical Islam.”
- He wants to place interests of American citizens and their security above everything.
- As he explains it, “America First” will be the overarching motto of his foreign policy.
- He feels the US intervention in Iraq, Egypt, Libya and Syria have been failures.
- Attempts to force western democracy on these countries was the wrong approach, causing many American soldiers’ and civilians’ lives to be lost.
- Since the Cold War, he feels the American foreign policy has been a disaster.
- All of these mistakes put together has created the environment for ISIS to gain momentum.
- As a change, Trump will stop the “theft” of American jobs by other countries and immigrants, which will strengthen the economy so he can boost defense spending.
- Trump believes the US allies should contribute more toward their financial, political, and human costs. If not, the US should stop supporting them.
- Trump promises to “lead a free world that is properly armed and funded, and funded beautifully.”
- Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
- He feels that Israel should be given more importance by the US.
- He feels that past US foreign policy, led by Obama and Clinton, had made the Middle East unstable.
- After listing all these issues, he goes on to say the US foreign policy should be “more unpredictable,” in order to take the enemies by surprise.
- Trump promises that ISIS “will be gone,” if he becomes President.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has a different approach. Here are key points on Clinton’s foreign policy perspective:
- Clinton’s foreign policy seems to be more orthodox and status quo, including strong military and US interventions wherever the US-led global order is unbalanced.
- She feels that most of the world’s problems can be solved by US-led intervention and initiative.
- She will, however, try to be more cautious abroad, as her foreign policy will decide her future candidature in 2020. This will be important since she also has some scandals in her closet.
- She is staunchly against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.
- She will strongly support NATO members, to give a clear warning signal to Russia’s Putin.
- She wants Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to be taken down from power. She feels the US is a world leader and should definitely intervene in Syria.
- She feels that even though America faces grave threats, the country should not stoop low to as to disregard universal values and human rights.
- Wishes to focus on eliminating economic inequality in Latin America as well.
Conclusion: Trump seems to be overly focused on fighting against Islam to solve America’s problems, while Clinton wants to make sure the US doesn’t forget human and universal values while intervening in global issues.
Next: learn about the candidates’ economic plans. They have a few surprising similarities!
Image credit: Ted Eytan