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The Candidates' Foreign Policies

It's Bush's American exceptionalism versus Gore's liberal multilateralism

Jun 12, 2000, Vol. 5, No. 37 • By MARC A. THIESSEN
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GEORGE W. BUSH sparked the first foreign policy skirmish of the 2000 campaign with his surprise announcement that, as president, he would consider making unilateral cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, coupled with deployment of a national missile defense -- whether or not other nations followed suit.


Vice President Gore immediately attacked Bush for his heresy in abandoning multilateral arms control, charging the Bush plan would "reignite the arms race," "hinder, rather than help, arms control," and "destroy" the ABM treaty, which Gore called "the cornerstone of strategic stability."


It was, at last, an honest exchange. For months, Gore has sought to frame a false debate on foreign policy, casting the election as a battle between the Democratic defenders of "internationalism" and the Republican "isolationist" hordes. In Boston in April, Gore called Governor Bush a captive of "right-wing, partisan isolationism" who would "build new walls, neglect new and urgent challenges, and pursue an irresponsible neo-isolationism."


This is patently dishonest. Governor Bush has firmly declared that as president he will pursue an internationalist foreign policy. But his idea of what constitutes internationalism differs markedly from Gore's.

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