Clinton and Trump’s Foreign Policies Share Common Principles

10/25/2016

Young Professionals in Foreign Policy YPFP Fellowship Program | 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/young-professionals-in-foreign-policy/clinton-and-trumps-foreig_b_12650386.html 

By Tania F. Cohen

From the embers of an election season rife with negativity rises an unlikely phoenix: reminders of the potential for bipartisanship in U.S. politics. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s proposals for fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and their beliefs that ISIL presents a greater threat to American security than Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are strikingly similar. Consequently, they each prioritize defeating the terrorist organization over a political transition in Syria. Clinton and Trump also believe that nuclear weapons are the world’s greatest threat, although their proposed strategies for fighting that threat differ significantly. The similarity in their stances—and in the case of fighting ISIL, in their strategies for accomplishing those objectives—reminds us that bipartisanship in policy-making, for which establishing common ground and compromise are key, is possible.