home > by publication type > interviews > International Press Assess U.S. Presidential Race
Email
| Interviewer: | Eben Kaplan |
|---|
August 28, 2008
DENVER — The 2008 U.S. presidential race pitting Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) against presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has sparked intense international interest. For instance, a recent survey by the Pew Research Center showed 83 percent of Japanese citizens expressing interest in the campaign, compared to 80 percent of U.S. citizens. Of course, different issues pique the interests of different nations. CFR.org surveyed some representatives of the international press corps at the Democratic National Convention in Denver to find out which countries are interested in which issues.
Denmark
Mikkel Selin, Ekstra Bladet
What concerns the Danes most are the foreign policy issues. Denmark has been an ally of the United States, both in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there are a lot of Danes who are opposed to participating in the war there. That’s one of the key issues in Denmark.
A certain part of the Danish population is very anti-Muslim, and they also see the war against terror as a chance to fight for Western values against what they see as a Muslim uprising.
I’ve seen polls in Denmark that say nine out of ten Danes would prefer a Democratic president—whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama—to a Republican. Denmark is in many ways a very liberal country and has a hard time understanding the social conservatism that the Republican candidates represent on women’s issues, on gay issues, and so on. It’s about who the Danes can relate to on a cultural level and the Democratic candidates are more in sync with the Danes on that regard.
Brazil
Marilia Martins, O Globo
Brazilians are very interested in this election. We believe this is a special election for Latin America because it will [end] eight years of the Bush administration. Even if McCain is elected, he will have a different foreign policy than George W. Bush. It’s time to renew the alliance between Latin American countries and the United States.
The image of Obama is very powerful. A black man as a presidential candidate is something that can really change America’s image around the world. On the Republican side, John McCain is a hero of the Vietnam War so this is also very important for us because his policy regarding the Iraq war and Iran will [affect] the whole configuration of the world.
Brazilians are also very interested in trade. The Brazilian economy is growing. We’re in a very good moment, and the United States is a very important [trade] partner. The Republicans and the Democrats both have very protectionist trade policies, so we don’t really see a difference on this issue. But we see the possibility of negotiation with Obama because he’s said he will sit with everyone. This is a new attitude for a president. Maybe John McCain will do the same, but who knows.
Mexico
Ana Paula Ordorica, Grupo Imagen
One thing that many people in Mexico worry [about] is the economic way each of the candidates wants to face the issues. Barack Obama was talking about renegotiating the NAFTA accords and that is something that worries some part of Mexico. Others wanted them to be renegotiated because they are not comfortable with the accords, but I think that would be terrible for Mexico. Basically, what the candidates, both Barack Obama and John McCain, have been saying about economic issues scares [most Mexicans]. They've been very protectionist.
Mexicans are also paying a lot of attention to immigration issues. We know John McCain promoted a very important bill, but after he became the candidate he has not been that enthusiastic about fixing the immigration problem, and that's something that worries us. With Obama, many people in Mexico think that he doesn't even know what Mexico is. He went on a tour through Europe and the Middle East, but Mexico was not even on his map. So that's something that worries us, to have the candidates again look towards other regions and forget Latin America. Whenever we have a State of the Union [speech] in Mexico, the president talks about the United States and the importance of the bilateral relationship. That's something that usually doesn't happen with U.S. politicians.
Nigeria
Constance Ikokwu, This Day
People are generally interested about the election, not really because they have specific issues they want to talk about, but out of curiosity that an African-American has won the nomination of a major party in the United States. It’s something very unusual; they’ve never seen this kind of thing before. They’re just interested and they want to know the outcome, they want to know if Obama will win the election, and they want to know what Americans think, and they want to understand how he was able to win the nomination in the first place.
Nigeria has always been a major U.S. ally in the African continent, so I would think that our president would expect that kind of relationship would continue if Obama wins the election, especially because his father is from Kenya. Under the George Bush administration, the relationship has been cordial, so I would expect that another Republican president would want that to continue as well. I don’t know what John McCain’s foreign policy would be; he appears to be quite aggressive. Nigerians will be looking at what he would do concerning the U.S. Africa Command, which has been a very controversial issue.
Nigeria also supplies 15 percent of U.S. oil needs, and oil will be an issue that will continue to be discussed.
Japan
Toshiya Umehara, Asahi Shimbun
I think it’s fair to say generally there’s a huge interest toward the U.S. election. It’s not so much the policy per se of the particular candidates, I think that has more to do with the lingering nomination process. We don’t have this long process.
The Japanese economy, of course, is a huge concern to the Japanese public, but it’s hard to discern [how] what’s going on in the U.S. presidential election affects the status of the Japanese economy. People are generally more interested in the political process.
If you’re talking about foreign policy there’s a general uneasiness about rising China. What kind of relations the United States has with China has a huge impact on the relations between the United States and Japan as well. That’s one of the biggest foreign policy issues. Another is North Korea, but if I look at the policies of Senator Obama and Senator McCain toward North Korea, there aren’t big differences.
Kuwait
Ron Baygents, Kuwait News Agency
I don’t think Kuwaitis are any different from most of the international community insofar as there’s a heightened interest in this election. Because the United States is still the number one superpower in the world today, it naturally means that the world is interested in what’s happening.
Because Kuwait has the history that it does with Iraq—it shares a border with Iraq—it’s naturally more interested in that. Much of what’s happening in Kuwait now is that they’re focused internally. The rulers of Kuwait are heavily involved in internal politics. In the past they haven’t had that luxury because they’ve had external threats. Probably the most prominent international issue for Kuwaitis is Iran. Iran remains a bigger question for the future and Kuwait is just across the water. There is a fear of Iranian aggression; historically there’s an Arabic-Persian [tension] that goes way back in history. Iran often makes bellicose statements about its neighbors.
Germany
Peter Wuetherich, Agence France-Presse, German Language Service
This year was the first time, I think, that an American presidential campaign came to Germany. Barack Obama was in Berlin and there were [tens of thousands] of people to hear him talk. [The campaign] is a huge issue; it was before Obama’s visit and it still is. The reason is that most Germans are fed up with the present government and they really want change. I think 90 percent of Germans say in polls that they prefer Obama, so that’s a lot of excitement.
Iraq is an issue, of course. The war in Iraq has been very unpopular in Germany. Afghanistan is another issue. Germany is involved in Afghanistan; its army is there, but it’s not a very popular thing among Germans. Transatlantic relations is another big topic. It’s been kind of difficult, especially with the Bush administration. John McCain is well-known in Germany; he’s at the [security] conference every year in Munich and he’s seen as a pro-transatlantic type. But as for Afghanistan, Iraq, the war against terrorism, I think the choice of Germans would be Obama.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.