Sen. Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy team included veteran Clinton administration officials seeking to revive U.S. leadership through a balance of soft and hard power.

Experts say the United States, overstretched militarily and diplomatically in the Middle East, needs to refocus its Asia-Pacific strategy to reverse a slide in its influence over the region.

Foreign policy is dominating U.S. political discourse for the first time in years. This backgrounder looks at the leading schools of foreign-policy thought on both sides of the political aisle.

Australia is assuming a more prominent role in Pacific Rim security affairs, increasingly deploying forces to troubled states in the region in an attempt to stabilize them. While its moves are welcom…