Robert Kagan on Foreign Policy & 2008

Robert Kagan is senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His most recent book, "Dangerous Nation: America's Place in the World from its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the 20th Century," was published in the fall of 2006 and was a 2007 Finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize. Kagan writes a monthly column on world affairs for the Washington Post and is a contributing editor at both the Weekly Standard and The New Republic.

Photo by Mariusz Kubik

On McCain:

I think that McCain has been very clear about his foreign policy vision. He feels it's very important to take a cooperative approach—certainly not a confrontational one—to foreign policy. He recognizes the need for the democracies of the world to work more closely together. In fact, he's called for some kind of League of Democracies. He is aiming for a kind of American leadership that takes democratic allies into account. I think he has made it clear that he may be more troubled by the direction Russia is taking than the Bush Administration has taken, in terms of its domestic policies. On China, he seeks a cooperative relationship.

On the Democrats:

What I expect to be different between McCain and the Democratic candidates, I don't feel that Barack Obama can get out the troops in 18 months. I think similarly Hillary Clinton can't promise a rapid withdrawal for Iraq. But the truth is that I would say that on the broadest issues, we're not talking about 180 degrees in shift in American foreign policy. No one is offering that. Obama talks about the United States being the leader of the free world, using force if necessary without United Nations authorization, and not being bound by other nations. If you get beyond Iraq, no one is offering a radical change in U.S. foreign policy. Personally, I've argued that at some point the U.S. is going to have to engage in relations with Iran. But it is ridiculous to say that you can talk to anybody at anytime; I don't consider that a cosmic issue of foreign policy. I don't think there's a huge dividing line between the remaining candidates. There are people offering alternative visions of American foreign policy: their names are Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, and Dennis Kucinich, but they're not going to be president.