Peter Baker discusses the relationship between what presidential candidates say on the campaign trail and what they do once elected and what this relationship indicates about U.S. foreign policy if Mitt Romney wins the presidential election in November.

U.S. presidential nominating conventions often touch on national security and foreign policy, but don't always signal the direction of a winning candidate's policy, explains this Backgrounder.

Leslie H. Gelb says Obama captured the political center at home on foreign policy – a feat for a Democrat – because he avoided costly mistakes abroad. He understood the limits of U.S. power, but not its strengths when encased in a good strategy, and thus failed to achieve solutions to big problems abroad.

Will civil war hit Afghanistan when the U.S. leaves?

John Lewis Gaddis, author of George F. Kennan: An American Life, discusses the diplomatic and personal legacy of George F. Kennan, former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.

This meeting is part of a series hosted with the National History Center featuring prominent historians who will examine the events and times that shaped foreign policy as we know it today.

John Lewis Gaddis, author of George F. Kennan: An American Life, discusses the diplomatic and personal legacy of George F. Kennan, former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.

This meeting is part of a series hosted with the National History Center featuring prominent historians who will examine the events and times that shaped foreign policy as we know it today.

Michael Cohen and Micah Zenko argue that Mitt Romney's foreign policy speeches both wrongly inflate the threats that America faces and project weakness by having no confidence in America's ability to meet any such challenges.

John Lewis Gaddis, author of George F. Kennan: An American Life, discusses the diplomatic and personal legacy of George F. Kennan, former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.

This meeting is part of a series hosted with the National History Center featuring prominent historians who will examine the events and times that shaped foreign policy as we know it today.

James Mann of the American Prospect provides insight into presidential candidate Mitt Romney's foregin policy agenda and how he has yet to announce the direction he hopes to steer the country.

Judged by the standard of protecting U.S. interests, things have worked out quite well for the Obama administration; judged by the standard of midwifing a new global order, they remain a work in progress.

Leslie H. Gelb says Mitt Romney's foreign policy strategy is an attempt to blend all Republican viewpoints.

Gone are the days when the United States led major powers in the decisions that ruled the planet, writes Ian Bremmer at the Daily Beast. Could Obama or Romney make the most of our new reduced role in international affairs?

Mitt Romney's criticism of Obama's foreign policy only demonstrates his own incompetence and lack of credentials, argues Erin McPike in tracking the candidate's foreign policy history.

Obama's recent foreign policy has focused on asking for space to delay or stop history until after the 2012 elections. But Jackson Diehl points out that the problem with making space is that it tends to get filled by others.

Leslie H. Gelb discusses who might replace Hillary Clinton as the next U.S. secretary of state.

Charles A. Kupchan says the absence of consensus over which country will oversee the coming world is just as it should be.

Historical precedent shows that fears of Romney following a popularly dictated foreign policy are unjustified; as president, Romney would have leeway in fashioning popular opinion, especially on war policy, writes Robert W. Merry in The National Interest.

Charles A. Kupchan says the United States will remain one of the world's most influential nations--but it will not dominate forever.

Charles A. Kupchan, CFR's Whitney Shepardson senior fellow, discusses his new book No One's World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn.

"Between 1500 and 1800, the West sprinted ahead of other centers of power in Asia and the Middle East. Europe and the United States have dominated the world since," writes Charles A. Kupchan in a new CFR book, No One's World: The West, The Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn. But this era is coming to a close, he argues, as power shifts from the West to the rising rest.