home > campaign 2008 > election must reads
August 14, 2008
Harvard professor Samantha Power reviews two books on conservatism and foreign policy, and looks at the common perception that the Republican Party has "issue ownership" over national security policy.
See more in United States, National Security and Defense
August 6, 2008
Brookings' Michael Fullilove asks how much is at stake in terms of foreign policy in the 2008 presidential race. He considers the impacts of the 2000 and 2004 elections on U.S. foreign policy, and says this year, the choice is between a candidate who sees "jihadist terrorism as a transcendent threat" and one who "looks at the world through the lens of globalisation."
See more in United States, U.S. Election 2008
July 30, 2008
Writer Robert Baer considers why Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) chose not to visit Pakistan during his July 2008 multi-country tour.
See more in Pakistan, U.S. Election 2008
July 28, 2008
The New York Times examines Sen. John McCain's leadership of the International Republican Institute (IRI), an organization founded under the Reagan administration to promote democracy abroad. The article says his leadership of IRI "reveals an organization in many ways at odds with the political outsider image that has become a touchstone of the McCain campaign for president."
See more in United States, U.S. Election 2008
July 28, 2008
Ten Iraq policy experts discuss the effectiveness of the troop surge.
See more in Iraq, Wars and Warfare
July 2008
In this report from the Brookings Institution's Phoenix Initiative, a group of scholars makes a set of national security policy recommendations for the next presidential administration.
See more in United States, National Security and Defense
July 16, 2008
TIME profiles Obama Middle East adviser Dennis Ross and considers the implications of his presence on the campaign for Obama's policy toward the region.
See more in United States, U.S. Election 2008
July 14, 2008
The Miami Herald compares the presidential candidates' statements on how to handle the U.S.-run detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Reporter Carol Rosenberg says Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "would seek to beef up the Bush administration's detainee doctrine," while Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) would "seek to dismantle some of its key tenets."
See more in United States, U.S. Election 2008
July 14, 2008
USA Today looks at the debate surrounding domestic offshore drilling.
See more in United States, Energy/Environment
July 6, 2008
As high gas prices become the top issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, New York Times reporter Nelson Schwartz looks back at the missed opportunities to head off the current energy crisis over the past 25 years.
See more in United States, Energy
July 1, 2008
Boston University international relations professor Andrew Bacevich writes that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) must "demonstrate that Iraq represents the truest manifestation of an approach to national security that is fundamentally flawed." In doing so, Bacevich says, Obama can turn the 2008 presidential election into "a referendum on the current administration's entire national security legacy."
See more in United States, U.S. Election 2008
July 1, 2008
The Los Angeles Times compares Sen. John McCain's energy policy plans to his past statements and voting record, and concludes he has often taken "contradictory stances on the federal government's role in energy policy."
See more in United States, Energy
June 25, 2008
Ian Leslie asks the people of America to stop being so grown up about politics.
See more in United States, U.K., U.S. Election 2008
June 26, 2008
Robert Hormats and Jim O'Neil of Goldman Sachs International write that the next president will need a new set of policies to address a changing global economy. They say the United States must "boost its own competitiveness and further open foreign markets for its goods and services." They also call for the creation of a "more representative global economic policy architecture to reflect the ongoing shifts in financial wealth, commodity power and trade flows."
See more in United States, Emerging Markets
June 25, 2008
Former Sen. Gary Hart (D-CO) says the 2008 presidential election represents a new cycle of American political history. He says Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) should introduce a "new, expanded, post-cold-war definition" of national security. He also says the United States must "transition from a consumer economy to a producing one," and says U.S. moral obligations to the environment "must become paramount."
See more in United States, U.S. Election 2008
June 9, 2008
Slate's Anne Applebaum asks how an African-American president will be perceived internationally.
See more in United States, U.S. Election 2008
May 2008
Robert Driskill, economics professor at Vanderbilt University, says economists need to do a better job of explaining the benefits of free trade.
See more in United States, Trade
May 31, 2008
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, third-party presidential candidate Ralph Nader criticizes Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), saying the Democratic candidate is unwilling to stand up to corporate power. Nader also lays out his own platform, which includes an end to "lip service" on NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, as well as a reduction in the "bloated, wasteful military budget."
See more in United States, U.S. Election 2008
May 28, 2008
The New Republic's Jonathan Chait says the presidential candidates have been compelled to take "hard-and-fast" positions this campaign season, particularly on Iraq. But, he says, "any number of things could happen" in Iraq between now and the next president's inauguration in January 2009 that could force the candidates to change plans.
See more in United States, U.S. Election 2008
May 26, 2008
James Surowiecki writes that despite the Democratic presidential candidates' negative rhetoric on free trade, average Americans have generally benefited from free trade with China "in the sense that it's made their dollars go further than they otherwise would have."
See more in United States, Trade
We welcome your views on the foreign policy issues in the presidential transition. Join the discussion and post your comments on the The New Administration blog, or send us an email at letters@cfr.org.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.