Some Westerners are puzzled that Iran’s foreign policy remains as bellicose today as it was in the time of Ayatollah Khomeini. But history shows that the regime’s foreign policy is designed to maintain its ideological identity.
The GOP candidate both faces a puzzle and represents one. The puzzle he faces concerns the domestic political forces driving his party’s foreign-policy outlook. Meanwhile, his own foreign-policy views are equally difficult to decipher.
The president gets solid marks for his handling of a host of tactical challenges. But his Afghan policy proved disjointed, he lacks a clear strategic framework and he has failed to put U.S. economic power at the core of his foreign policy.
