Few American voters cite foreign policy as the deciding factor in how they cast their ballot. Yet the U.S. president has more international sway than virtually any other individual — especially at a time of immense geopolitical volatility.
We spoke to Steven Erlanger, The Times’s chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe, about what’s at stake.
How are U.S. election watchers around the world feeling?
There’s this kind of fascination and almost fury, a feeling that so much of life or policy in Europe depends on voters in North Carolina and Georgia and Arizona — because the American president, in a way, is everybody’s president. It’s just too big and important and rich a country.
What’s the view from Europe, more generally?
Western Europe, for the most part, is really nervous. In general, Western Europeans have always loved Democrats and disliked Republicans, going way back beyond Reagan. In Eastern Europe, where Ukraine is such a big issue, they are also nervous.
But some more far-right or hard-right leaders see Trump as something of a standard-bearer, and they share some of what seem like his biggest concerns: migration, abortion, gender, the loss of national identity. It’s important to say not everybody thinks Kamala Harris is God’s gift to democracy and to the world.
Harris has taken great steps to differentiate herself from President Biden. How might her administration differ?
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Source link : https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/briefing/us-election-north-korea-russia.html
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Publish date : 2024-10-24 04:33:00
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