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The stories that matter about money and politics in the race for the White House
The author is executive director of the think tank New America and a contributing editor to the FT.
Every US presidential candidate has to try to prove that they are tough enough to take charge of the world’s largest military arsenal, serve as commander-in-chief of the world’s most widely deployed armed forces, and defend the American people wherever they are. Recall Hillary Clinton’s speech. advertisement In 2008, when she was running against Barack Obama, she showed a picture of sleeping children with a voiceover saying: “It’s 3 a.m. … a phone is ringing in the White House … Your vote will decide who answers that call; whether it’s someone who already knows the world’s leaders, knows the military, someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, faces the task with additional challenges. Clinton could reasonably argue that she had more experience than Obama, but she also knew, like every candidate for an office involving national security or domestic affairs, that she had to strike a balance between being tough and being humane, warm enough to meet persistent expectations that women display a maternal side. Even former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a sober, no-nonsense presence, found favor with her voters as “Mutti Merkel,” or Mama Merkel.
Harris is already facing challenges for her laughter, among other things, as part of a Republican attack that will attempt to portray her as fundamentally unserious and that currently appears to be backfiring.
Beyond all this nonsense, however, there remains the very real question of what Harris’s foreign policy would actually look like.
Efforts to find space between Harris and President Joe Biden, particularly on Israel/Gaza, produce differences of tone rather than substance.
Harris’ life experience and that of her senior foreign policy staff offer better guidance. First, she is very tough. She was a former prosecutor, The firmness of his speech has been evident both in his questions at Senate hearings and in his repeated appearances at the Munich Security Conference. In 2023, he used his speech to to accuse Russia, in great detail, of crimes against humanity; this year detailed the ways in which “Putin’s war has already been a complete failure for Russia.”
Interestingly, perhaps because of the need for prosecutors to focus on victims as well as perpetrators, Harris speaks of human suffering and state interests. After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she made a statement. statement In her speech, the activist referred to the “dead children and desperate and hungry people fleeing in search of safety” in Gaza and declared: “I will not remain silent.” However, her empathy is not ideological; she also said that she “supports” the families of the Israeli hostages.
Machiavelli told his prince to harden his heart in foreign affairs, distinguishing between the morality of action necessary to protect an entire people and individual morality. Harris, like Biden, seems determined No to harden his heart.
Harris is a staunch internationalist, stressing that “America’s global leadership directly benefits the American people.” However, her primary focus on domestic affairs throughout her career, as well as her experience of the impact of climate change in California and her engagement with the migration crisis during her vice presidency, should incline her toward an integrated view of global threats.
Rebecca Lissner, Harris’ deputy national security adviser, oversaw the Biden administration’s 2022 National Security Strategy, the first to recognize the equal gravity and menace of transnational and geopolitical threats to the United States.
Lissner’s boss, Philip Gordon, links this emphasis to Harris’ desire to look to the future, observing: “The vice president often asks how the things we do today will impact America and the world five, ten, twenty years from now. That’s why we’ve seen her focus so much on issues like artificial intelligence, space, climate, and the empowerment of women and girls, and on dynamic, growing parts of the world like Southeast Asia and Africa.”
Finally, both Biden and Harris are justifiably proud of the ways the United States has strengthened its reputation abroad by bolstering its infrastructure and technological prowess at home.
Yet from her own experience, Harris is more likely to be aware of the ways in which racial, ethnic and political divisions weaken the country. Her mantra is less likely to be a “foreign policy for the middle class” than a version of “peace through strength,” where strength comes from many sources, including fair and equal treatment for all Americans. Let’s say it’s a new combination of might and right.