I very much doubt that people expected much of the final
presidential debate. To get this out of the way, I thought it revealed nothing
new in terms of foreign policy and indeed, there was little to no difference between the
two candidates. According to polls, only 2% of Americans consider foreign
policy a priority, so it is only natural that the entire debate was going to be
re-shifted to the economy. In addition, the true purpose of the debate is not
to compare and contrast foreign policy philosophies and strategies, indeed they
are quasi-identical, but rather to see who is more suited to be
commander-in-chief. To put it in more pedestrian terms, the rivalry was to be
decided based on the measurement of the male sex organ.
But I believe that it would still be interesting to analyze
what they talked about, but perhaps more importantly, what they didn’t. I’ll be
looking at the segments dealing with Libya, Egypt, Syria, and Iran then look at
what was said with regards to China, before concluding by looking at both candidates’
conception of American foreign policy.
