Who Won the U.S. Presidential Debate?

The 2024 US election year has been one of the most tumultuous on record. The past two months have seen a shockingly lacklustre performance from President Joe Biden on the debate stage and his subsequent withdrawal from the ticket, an assassination attempt on former President and current Republican nominee Donald Trump, and the elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris to the Democratic nomination. The Harris campaign now has three months to sell its vision to the American people.

While domestic economic pressures will likely be the main focus of US voters in the election, the question of how America’s 47th president will dictate foreign policy will also be critical – both for Americans and all other peoples of the world who will be directly or indirectly affected by the new administration’s policies. Indeed, the next administration will have its hands full on the world stage, with ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza and growing US-China competition.

Looking towards the Middle East, Harris’s selection of Tim Walz as her running mate locks in the missing piece on her ticket and provides further insight into what her administration could mean for the region. A sparse record on foreign policy makes it difficult to ascertain Harris and Walz’s exact stances on various critical issues. Still, we have enough clues to paint a picture of their future Middle East policy which, despite some nuances, looks like it would mirror that of President Biden.

Subtle differences on Gaza

Harris’s carefully crafted “As Israel defends itself, it matters how” approach to Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7 and her recent declaration of “I will not be silent [on suffering in Gaza]” in the wake of Netanyahu’s Washington, DC, visit have created some distance between her views on the conflict versus those of Biden in the eyes of American voters. Reports that the National Security Council had to “tone down” her language during a speech delivered in March, in which she referred to the conditions in Gaza as “inhumane” and directed Israel to increase the flow of aid, further highlighted this distinction.

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