In the two days since Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid and endorsed vice president Kamala Harris as the Democratic party nominee, much attention has been devoted to the mechanics of Biden’s decision, which close advisers or family members may have convinced him to pull out and how the entire episode will shake up the race. But with Harris the strong favourite to become the Democratic’s presidential nominee, it’s worth asking what president Harris could mean for other countries, not least the United State’s allies—and enemies.
Does Harris have a foreign policy agenda, let alone a foreign policy philosophy? It’s a difficult question to answer, because Harris is in many ways the opposite of Joe Biden on the international stage. Biden has been around for a half-century, has a huge rolodex of foreign leaders on his desk and fancies himself an international relations aficionado. Harris, meanwhile, is a relative newcomer on the national stage. She served one six-year term in the United States Senate before running for president herself in the 2020 cycle (where she lost) and joining the Biden ticket. Her work in the Senate focused on criminal justice issues given her role on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Foreign policy or national security played only a minor role. As vice president, she was tasked with finding a way to decrease illegal migration from Central America to the U.S.. And as a top cabinet member, Harris was privy to all the closely-held national security conversations; she was reportedly the last person in the room before Biden decided to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
For the most part, foreign policy hasn’t taken up much of her time. Even so, there are nuggets of information embedded in her voting record and policy speeches that offer a few clues about where she stands on certain issues.
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