August 26th, 2008 by Matt

Now that Barack Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as his VP has settled, several analysts have taken a look at Biden’s foreign policy experience with the apparent assumption that he might have an influence on a potential Obama administration’s international behavior, as Dick Cheney asserted his influence in the Bush administration.

Blake Hounshell likes Biden’s “lack of ideology”, arguing that he doesn’t fit either the realist (pro-intervention in Darfur) or the “liberal hawk” stereotypes, with his disdain for “sweeping rhetoric…about bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq”.

Writing for al-Jazeera, Marwan Bishara agrees, calling Biden both a foreign policy liberal and a realist who “doesn’t believe in promoting democracy in the world when it conflicts with US national interests.”

Ilan Goldenberg takes issue with a WaPo op-ed by Michael Rubin critical of Biden’s policies on Iran.

CFR has a quick run-down of some more analysis from the past few days.

Posted in Election 08, US foreign policy, US politics |