The Economist: on Foreign Policy

Al Gore: Supports New Security Agenda and Third-World debt relief

Gore was one of a handful of hawkish Democrats who voted in favor of the Gulf War in 1991. His speeches emphasize traditional balance-of-power questions, such as arms control. But he also has a fondness for the “new security agenda” - issues that affect the security of states and the stability of regimes, but which are immune from traditional diplomatic or military pressure. As president, he would:
• resubmit to the Senate for ratification the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), rejected in 1999
• would campaign for further increases in the defense budget
• will urge Congress to grant more debt relief for developing countries
• is prepared to engage in humanitarian interventions abroad
• treats missile-shield idea with some caution, and would negotiate both revisions to the ABM treaty and cuts in nuclear missiles with Russia
• would ratify the Kyoto accords on climate change

George W. Bush: Less intervention abroad and unilateral nuclear cuts at home

Bush's foreign policy experience is minimal. Yet his foreign policy speeches and his circle of advisors both draw from the veil of pragmatic, big-power Republicanism practiced with some skill by his father when he was in the White House. As president, he would:
• seek further increases in the defense budget, and a thorough review of military needs and financing
• supports trying not to intervene abroad, unless this was proved to be in America's national interest
• would appoint General Colin Powell as secretary of state
• supports acting unilaterally in arms-control negotiations, if necessary
• is inclined to scrap the ABM treaty and build a nuclear shield over the objections of Russia and China
• favors deep unilateral cuts in America's nuclear stockpile
• opposes the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and Kyoto accords

Mike Pompeo: Benghazi was "worse, in some ways, than Watergate"

Mike Pompeo: America First; treat the world with some skepticism

Pat Buchanan: Practice "masterly inactivity," not "entangling alliances"