Their views of the world, and the best way to deal with its troubles and challenges, paint a pointy distinction between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Harris hews largely to conventional Democratic Occasion values however with a contemporary contact. She favors multilateralism and embraces robust U.S. alliances whereas shining new mild on international points similar to local weather change, girls’s rights and meals insecurity.
Trump, who eschews a lot of the Republican Occasion’s orthodoxy, promotes an“America First” strategy that always interprets into “America Alone.” As president, he rejected many conventional allies and flattered a few of the world’s strongmen and autocrats. He deemphasized social points similar to human rights whereas relying closely on punitive measures together with financial sanctions and tariffs to confront rivals and allies alike, together with China and Mexico.
Here’s a have a look at a number of of the world’s areas and what insurance policies every presidential candidate would possibly pursue there.
Israel-Hamas and the Gaza warfare
Practically a yr after Hamas poured into southern Israel, killed about 1,200 individuals and took greater than 200 hostage, unleashing Israel’s brutal warfare within the Gaza Strip, a cease-fire stays elusive. The U.S., Egypt and Qatar have labored exhaustively and unsuccessfully to convey Hamas and the Israeli authorities to phrases that will finish combating and free the hostages, in addition to launch a whole bunch of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
Harris and Trump agree that the Israel-Hamas warfare, which Gaza well being officers say has killed greater than 41,000 Palestinians within the territory, should come to an finish. However they differ on how that ought to occur and what the way forward for Gaza ought to appear like.
Harris helps President Biden’s ongoing cease-fire talks, which envision Israel withdrawing from the coastal enclave and a “clear pathway” to the formation of an unbiased Palestinian state. She has additionally led the administration in voicing assist for the Palestinian individuals of Gaza, who face hunger, illness and widespread destruction of properties and livelihoods. Nonetheless, she doesn’t assist any effort to cease delivery weapons to Israel.
Trump has mentioned he wouldn’t oppose an Israeli army victory in Gaza and has not dominated out some type of Israeli rule or occupation of the enclave. When he was president, he didn’t actively assist a Palestinian state. The truth is, he granted Israel a protracted listing of concessions, together with switch of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the disputed holy metropolis of Jerusalem and recognition of Israeli management of the Golan Heights, seized from Syria within the 1967 Six-Day Struggle.
One in every of Trump’s signature international coverage achievements was the 2020 Abraham Accords, during which the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain acknowledged Israel and opened diplomatic ties, the primary international locations within the Arab world to take action since Egypt and Jordan a long time in the past. However powerhouse Saudi Arabia, thought of the crowning jewel of regional normalization, has not adopted go well with and is demanding such a step be contingent on a Palestinian state. The Biden-Harris administration advocates for that, however Trump has not introduced an opinion.
The Israel-Hamas warfare has intensified different conflicts within the Center East, together with assaults on worldwide delivery lanes by Yemen’s Houthi rebels and between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah. Each the Houthis and Hezbollah are backed by Iran.
Lebanon, Hezbollah and Iran
As president, Trump jettisoned the landmark Iran nuclear deal, signed in 2015 by President Barack Obama and 5 different world powers. It had efficiently curbed Iran’s nuclear program, however Trump claimed it didn’t go far sufficient in stopping different Iranian “malign conduct,” similar to assist for regional militias like Hezbollah in Lebanon, which in flip pose a risk to Israel.
With the U.S. pulling out of the deal, Iran went on a spree of enriching uranium, a key ingredient within the making of a nuclear bomb. This continued after Biden took workplace, and his efforts to revive the deal failed. Immediately, Iran is believed to be on the cusp of having the ability to produce a nuclear weapon. Trump’s coverage of “most stress” on Iran, which additionally included quite a few financial sanctions, by no means altered the Islamic Republic’s sample of assist for militant teams. Repression in Iran, particularly of girls and dissidents, solely grew.
Neither candidate is more likely to make substantial modifications in Iran coverage for the foreseeable future — until Israel’s combat with Hezbollah in Lebanon turns right into a wider warfare.
Harris has condemned Iran’s assist for Hezbollah and Hamas and its threats to Israel. And she or he helped push for Iran’s elimination from the United Nations Fee on the Standing of Ladies.
Ukraine and Russia
Practically three years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the warfare is a pointy level of disagreement between Harris and Trump.
Whereas Harris has repeatedly pledged assist for the federal government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump refused through the Sept. 10 presidential debate to say whether or not he even wished Ukraine to win.
Trump has mentioned, whereas providing no particulars, that he would shortly convey the battle to an finish. Ukraine interprets that as that means he would possibly attempt to use a possible cutoff of U.S. army help as a method of coercing Ukraine right into a decision with phrases extremely favorable to Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Trump shocked U.S. officers and allies in 2018 when he stood subsequent to Putin in Finland and questioned U.S. intelligence exhibiting Russia had interfered within the 2016 U.S. election. And Trump was impeached in 2019 for withholding army help from Ukraine whereas calling on Zelenskyy to analyze Hunter Biden.)
Harris mentioned within the debate that if Trump had been president when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, “Putin could be sitting in Kyiv proper now.” And she or he declared that Trump’s affinity for strongmen was truly a show of weak point. The Russian chief, she advised him, “would eat you for lunch.”
Extra just lately, Trump has sharpened his private assaults on Ukraine’s chief, depicted Ukraine as damaged and defeated, and repeated with out rationalization his assertion that underneath his personal management, the warfare would by no means have taken place.
In a speech in North Carolina, he accused Zelenskyy of “making little nasty aspersions towards your favourite president — me,” and declared that aside from the capital, Kyiv, Ukraine is “in rubble.” (Whereas Russia holds about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory and has launched air assaults in opposition to most main inhabitants facilities, the nation has various regional metropolises the place bomb harm is localized and municipal providers nonetheless operate comparatively usually.)
Because the election nears, Trump has continued to explain his personal relationship with Putin as favorable. Even whereas portraying the Russian chief as “no angel,” as he did within the North Carolina speech, Trump’s tone tends to be admiring, in keeping with his depiction of different authoritarian figures.
Latin America
Aside from when it comes up in immigration discussions, Latin America has largely been absent from the international coverage debate through the presidential race.
Neither candidate is aware of Latin America properly, though Harris spent a number of years as vp searching for to handle the basis causes of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and Trump has solid relationships with far-right leaders from the area together with Argentine President Javier Milei and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Trump and Harris align of their opposition to the autocratic governments in Venezuela and Nicaragua. They diverge with regards to commerce with the area.
As president, Trump renegotiated the North American Free Commerce Settlement, which helped elevate Mexico to grow to be the USA’ high buying and selling accomplice. He has been important of the U.S. commerce deficit with Mexico and Canada, and has proven an eagerness to enact tariffs to attempt to leverage international coverage objectives. In 2018, he taxed imports of metal and aluminum from Mexico and Canada, and briefly threatened to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports to punish the nation for what he mentioned was its inaction on migration. Trump says that if he’s elected to a second time period, he’ll impose a blanket tariff of as much as 20% on all international imports.
Harris warns that the blanket tariff would drive up client costs and harm the American economic system. However that doesn’t imply she helps unbridled free commerce. As a senator in 2020, Harris voted in opposition to passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement, which changed NAFTA, saying it didn’t embrace sufficient employee and environmental protections.
Each candidates have vowed to take a tough stance on legal teams from Latin America, though their approaches would possibly differ. As California legal professional normal, Harris prosecuted cartel members and expanded a activity pressure centered on cross-border crimes. Trump has mentioned he would assist airstrikes in opposition to gangs in Mexico and proposed sending particular ops into the nation to kill drug kingpins.
Europe and NATO
European allies nonetheless contemplate Kamala Harris considerably of an unknown high quality — she has been a well-recognized determine as vp, however there’s large recognition that her function was to present recommendation to the president, not make selections. However Harris has spoken repeatedly of the significance of nurturing alliances.
Trump, alternatively, has repeatedly denigrated the North Atlantic Treaty Group and the European Union. NATO allies overtly worry {that a} second Trump time period would end in the USA pulling out of the alliance altogether.
And Trump left some Western leaders nonplussed when he provided up Hungary’s Viktor Orban — who has labored systematically to undermine his personal nation’s democracy and is a serious irritant to nearly each different member of the EU — as a personality reference. Within the debate, Trump cited the assist of the “sensible prime minister of Hungary” as proof that world leaders respect him.
China
Trump and Harris have taken powerful stances on China, certainly one of America’s greatest rivals in commerce, protection and geopolitical alliances. The candidates have criticized China for mental property theft and unfair subsidization in tech and manufacturing that put U.S. companies at an obstacle.
In 2018, then-President Trump launched a commerce warfare with China by imposing tariffs on a whole bunch of billions of {dollars}’ price of Chinese language imports, and he has vowed to extend these considerably if elected. On the similar time, Trump has praised Chinese language President Xi Jinping — who has close to absolute energy — as “good” and robust, saying he guidelines China’s inhabitants “with an iron fist.” In 2020, Trump mentioned of his relationship with Xi: “He’s for China, I’m for the U.S., however apart from that, we love one another.”
Harris is essentially anticipated to take care of Biden’s strategy on commerce restrictions — Biden stored Trump tariffs and raised some this yr, together with 100% on electrical autos, 50% on photo voltaic cells and 25% on EV batteries and supplies. Harris has known as Trump’s plans to enormously broaden tariffs a tax on customers, who economists say bear the price of such insurance policies. She can also be anticipated to strengthen diplomatic ties within the Asia-Pacific area to fight rising Chinese language affect there, and she or he has expressed assist for sustaining the established order on Taiwan — one of many flashpoints in U.S.-China relations.
Trump’s much less predictable strategy to international coverage might alienate U.S. allies in Asia. How he’ll deal with relations with Taiwan can also be unclear. Beneath Trump, the U.S. elevated arms gross sales and safety cooperation with the democratic island that China claims as its territory. Nonetheless, Trump has mentioned Taiwan ought to pay the U.S. for army safety.
North Korea and South Korea
Throughout Trump’s first time period, he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un went from exchanging insults and threats of army motion on Twitter to sending one another what Trump known as “love letters,” during which Kim emphasised their “deep and particular friendship.”
And though Trump’s 2018 and 2019 summits with Kim ended with no denuclearization deal — and prompted criticisms they had been little greater than glorified photo-ops — questions now grasp over whether or not a second-term Trump would attempt to decide up the place they left off.
In contrast to the primary attempt, which was made doable by a pro-engagement South Korean president, a second try would doubtless run into resistance from at this time’s hardline South Korean administration.
A Harris presidency, alternatively, would doubtless see an extension of the Biden administration’s strategy: sanctions and elevated army deterrence.
In contrast to Harris, who reaffirmed Washington’s “prolonged deterrence dedication” to Seoul after visiting the Korean Demilitarized Zone in 2022, Trump has advocated ending joint army drills with South Korea — and hinted he would possibly withdraw U.S. troops from the peninsula if Seoul doesn’t pay extra for his or her repairs. After Trump’s first summit with Kim, in 2018, he shocked allies with an announcement that the U.S. would halt the joint large-scale army drills with South Korea, describing them as “provocative,” echoing North Korea’s language. The huge workouts resumed in 2022.
Wilkinson reported from Washington, King from Berlin and Jerusalem, Linthicum from Mexico Metropolis, Yang from Taipei and Kim from Seoul.
©2024 Los Angeles Occasions. Go to at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content material Company, LLC.
