Presidential campaign heads into its final months, the U.S. is carrying out daily air sorties in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. A major trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, waits in limbo. The U.S. has begun a long-term pivot to Asia and is bringing more Syrian refugees into the country.
Foreign policy is usually a campaign afterthought. But the next president will inherit a raft of global challenges in January. And compared with domestic issues, which can often depend on congressional legislation, the president has much greater leeway to act independently in foreign affairs.
Donald Trump's repeated controversial statements and Hillary Clinton's emphasis on her diplomatic experience as the former secretary of state have also been pushing foreign policy and national security front and center this year.
Here, in their own words, are some of Trump's and Clinton's remarks on global affairs:
ISIS and the Middle East
"I know more about ISIS than the generals," Trump said in November, in line with his repeated pledges to ramp up U.S. military action against Islamist extremists on multiple fronts.
National security experts of all stripes, including some retired generals, have taken umbrage and questioned his qualifications to be commander in chief.
"We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, in Libya, in Egypt and in Syria," Trump said at the Republican National Convention on July 21. "Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terrorism and doing it now, doing it quickly."
Clinton, meanwhile, says she too would step up action against ISIS with an intensified bombing campaign.
"We will strike their sanctuaries from the air, and support local forces taking them out on the ground. We will surge our intelligence so that we detect and prevent attacks before they happen," she told the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night.
Clinton says she won't send in U.S. ground troops. Trump has suggested at times he would use ground troops but has stayed away from making such remarks recently.
The U.S. currently has nearly 10,000 military personnel in Afghanistan, more than 5,000 in Iraq and several hundred in Syria. They are mostly involved in training, advising and the air campaigns.
Russia and Vladimir Putin
Over the years, Clinton has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "bully," and while running for president eight years ago, she said he "doesn't have a soul."
Shortly after becoming the top U.S. diplomat in 2009, amid deteriorating relations between the U.S. and Russia, Clinton hit the "reset button" with Russia's foreign minister. But it didn't take. In the years since, the U.S. and Russia have tangled over Syria, Ukraine and Libya, among many other issues.
Foreign policy is usually a campaign afterthought. But the next president will inherit a raft of global challenges in January. And compared with domestic issues, which can often depend on congressional legislation, the president has much greater leeway to act independently in foreign affairs.
Donald Trump's repeated controversial statements and Hillary Clinton's emphasis on her diplomatic experience as the former secretary of state have also been pushing foreign policy and national security front and center this year.
Here, in their own words, are some of Trump's and Clinton's remarks on global affairs:
ISIS and the Middle East
"I know more about ISIS than the generals," Trump said in November, in line with his repeated pledges to ramp up U.S. military action against Islamist extremists on multiple fronts.
National security experts of all stripes, including some retired generals, have taken umbrage and questioned his qualifications to be commander in chief.
"We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, in Libya, in Egypt and in Syria," Trump said at the Republican National Convention on July 21. "Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terrorism and doing it now, doing it quickly."
Clinton, meanwhile, says she too would step up action against ISIS with an intensified bombing campaign.
"We will strike their sanctuaries from the air, and support local forces taking them out on the ground. We will surge our intelligence so that we detect and prevent attacks before they happen," she told the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night.
Clinton says she won't send in U.S. ground troops. Trump has suggested at times he would use ground troops but has stayed away from making such remarks recently.
The U.S. currently has nearly 10,000 military personnel in Afghanistan, more than 5,000 in Iraq and several hundred in Syria. They are mostly involved in training, advising and the air campaigns.
Russia and Vladimir Putin
Over the years, Clinton has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "bully," and while running for president eight years ago, she said he "doesn't have a soul."
Shortly after becoming the top U.S. diplomat in 2009, amid deteriorating relations between the U.S. and Russia, Clinton hit the "reset button" with Russia's foreign minister. But it didn't take. In the years since, the U.S. and Russia have tangled over Syria, Ukraine and Libya, among many other issues.
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