The world can only wait and watch

Foreign policy rarely has a decisive impact on presidential campaigns, but it can influence elections when it is linked to domestic issues. These are known as “intermestic” issues, which affect established groups within the country, such as Jews, Arabs or Latinos, especially Mexicans.

When pro-Palestinian groups protested at the Democratic National Conventionwho demands an end to US support for Israel and the offensive in Gaza threatened to sway the election in Michigan – an electorally important state with a significant Arab population – against the Democrats.

But the street demonstrations of pro-palestinian groups received a more subtle but forceful response from pro-Israel groups, who financed the opponents of the pro-Palestinian representatives and managed to defeat them.

The issue of Israeli intervention in Gaza and the US dedication to supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion were perhaps the only international issues openly discussed at the Republican and Democratic conventions.

The challenge of Chinese commercial and geopolitical competition was mentioned, but mainly in connection with trade and national security issues.

Topics such as border control and their connection with immigration and drug trafficking, or the importance of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, are considered internal affairs.

The attitude towards Cuba is determined as much by the ‘communist threat’ as by the electoral influence of Cuban exiles; the case of Venezuela combines nationalization, exile and political interests.

According to an analysis by Chatham House: “What is happening in November will have huge implications for the rest of the world, but equally, what happens in the rest of the world could play a key role in determining who enters the EU. White House. The world can only wait and see.”

Not long ago, it was suggested that President Bill Clinton ordered U.S. military intervention in the Balkans, where a war was raging between Serbs and Croats following the breakup of Yugoslavia. The idea was popularized in a movie, Wag the Dog, to symbolize the magnification of a crisis and to give the impression that intervention was necessary, when the real motive was to divert attention from a scandal involving sexual allegations.

The point is that while parties and candidates differ in their approaches to foreign policy, the underlying issues are always related to domestic issues.

Border security Americans are concerned, but it is a problem that cannot be solved without help. Participation of Mexico—the other partner on the 3,000-kilometer land border that U.S. strategists see as their country’s “unprotected underbelly” through which they fear terrorists could come. The parallel issues of drug cartels and fentanyl smuggling, blamed for more than 80,000 annual deaths, are part of the package and must re-engage with Mexico.

And finally, there is trade, a vital issue for Americans who want to create a North American region that is already the most commercially important in the world.

BY JOSÉ CARREÑO FIGUERAS
COLLEAGUE
[email protected]
@CARRENOJOSE1