Aides say Biden’s foreign policy remains at the core of his administration’s strong support for Ukraine, making it unlikely he will deviate. In war On cooperation with Russia and a tough stance against China, which is trying to displace the United States as the world’s leading superpower, Harris has carved out a unique rhetorical path on the global issue of Gaza, which is the most divisive among Democrats. express harsh criticism It continues to provide strong military support to Israel while denying the suffering of the Palestinian people.
But she is likely to approach world problems in a different way than Biden, who has long enjoyed personal relationships with leaders such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin during his decades on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and two terms in Congress. His time as vice president shaped his tough views on many issues, officials say.
Ms. Harris’s aides and allies say she is a social justice lawyer similar to former President Barack Obama, who challenges her staff to prove their theories and upholds law and order with a prosecutor’s zeal.
“Harris didn’t come into the position with any foreign policy experience, but she brings some really valuable things: a sharp intellect, really sound judgment, instincts that are always spot on,” said Nancy McEldowney, who served as national security adviser to Harris during her first year in the position. “She’s really demonstrated leadership over the last three and a half years, not just learning on the job.”
This description of Ms. Harris’ foreign policy approach is based on interviews with 14 U.S. and international policymakers, analysts and others who have worked closely with Ms. Harris, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their private interactions candidly. Ms. Harris’s office declined to make her available for an interview.
Republicans have characterized Harris’ foreign policy record as weak, accusing her of failing to tackle immigration and claiming she has weaker support for Israel than Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has said Russia would not have attacked Ukraine and Hamas would not have attacked Israel if he were president.
“Kamala Harris has no foreign policy experience whatsoever beyond supporting Joe Biden’s weak policies that have emboldened our enemies, led us to war in Ukraine and enabled Iranian-backed terrorists to attack Israel,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said, calling Harris “dangerously liberal” and arguing that “there is no question that America would be a more dangerous place with her as commander in chief.”
Harris will be participating President’s Daily Report, When she and Mr. Biden are both in Washington, she provides intelligence analysis on pressing national security issues. When Mr. Biden’s Cabinet meets to discuss foreign policy issues, aides say she is the one who rigorously tests the advice given to the president. Her main foreign policy adviser, Philip Gordon, is a longtime aide under Democratic administrations who wrote a book in 2020 examining the history of failed U.S. attempts to undertake regime change in the Middle East.
“She believes in challenging assumed truths and established patterns to find new and better solutions,” McEldowney said. Said.
Every vice president faces the challenge of defining a role with undefined responsibilities, and Harris is no exception. Harris, who has spoken for Biden on 17 foreign trips, has sought to build ties to the Indo-Pacific region and Africa and to give her own signature style to policy, aides said. The daughter of immigrant parents — her mother from India and her father from Jamaica — Harris has been a vocal advocate for maintaining a strong U.S. role in the world.
Speaking to U.S. sailors stationed in Japan in 2022, Harris stressed the U.S. military’s role in enforcing China’s right to navigate international waters claimed by the United States, and said the U.S. military presence in the Pacific was to protect “the rules and norms that have brought unprecedented peace and prosperity to the American people and the people of this region.”
If elected, Ms Harris would begin with a smaller team of foreign policy aides than Mr Biden, who had a team he had worked with for years as a senator and vice president, while Ms Harris’s time as vice president saw disproportionately high staff turnover.
And her efforts to advance U.S. policy have not always been successful.
At the Munich Security Conference in February, many European leaders said they believed the U.S. Amid growing concerns about the poll results and Washington’s future commitment to Ukraine and NATO, Ms Harris sought to calm fears.
Working with autocratic leaders and undermining alliances is “dangerous, destabilizing and downright shortsighted,” she said, criticizing President Trump and his Republican allies for considering withdrawing from NATO. “Such thinking would weaken America and undermine global stability and prosperity.”
Many European policymakers Her Speech Some questioned whether her assurances were appropriate for the current situation. Some, who were looking for practical advice on how to deal with political unrest in Washington, said her approach was more condescending than helpful. Officials who met with her privately in Munich said she was more forthcoming behind closed doors.
When Biden tapped Harris in 2021 to tackle what would become her best-known foreign policy initiative, efforts to stem illegal immigration from Central America, he entrusted her with a seemingly intractable problem he had tackled himself under the Obama administration. It was a politically risky assignment. Though officials point out that Harris has never been put in charge of immigration enforcement, which is the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, Republicans have pinned the blame for the surge in U.S. arrivals on Biden and called her the administration’s “border czar.”
Given the United States’ difficult history with Central America, addressing the root causes in the so-called “Northern Triangle” countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador will be a daunting task.
“Her point really was, ‘We need to get the private sector involved to have a long-term impact,'” a White House official said. “It’s not going to be an overnight fix, but as she has said many times, we have to create economic opportunity for people across the country.”
Rebecca Bill Chavez, who served as co-leader of Harris’ foreign policy team during the 2020 presidential campaign, said Harris understood the need to address the root causes of migration, including long-standing issues of poverty, inequality, corruption and insecurity. She also emphasized “the very real problem of widespread gender-based violence and protecting human and labor rights,” said Chavez, who is now president and CEO of the Inter-American Dialogue.
Officials say the effort was not intended to create a short-term solution, but point to the fact that dozens of companies have pledged or provided more than $5 billion in investments as part of the effort to create jobs and an environment in which people can settle.
Ms. Harris’ work in Central America has also highlighted her communications struggles. When she chose Mexico and Guatemala as her first international destinations, her stern words to would-be migrants, telling them “don’t come,” troubled progressive Democrats who say migrants have a right to legally seek asylum in the U.S. Aides say Ms. Harris was simply echoing Mr. Biden’s rhetoric, which she says works differently on foreign soil.
During the trip, Harris also The NBC News interview was panned In it, she appeared exasperated when asked if she had visited the southern border since taking office, and analysts say her explicit focus on corruption in Latin America has similarly irked business leaders in the region.
While Harris has not led policy on Ukraine, aides say she has led key European allies at critical moments: In February 2022, five days before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Harris was tasked with escorting Volodymyr Zelensky to the West. Intelligence indicating an attack was days away has prompted the Ukrainian president, who had previously publicly denied the threat, to prepare for war.
“It was a combination of really irrefutable evidence and a senior leader speaking with passion and conviction and real empathy,” McEldowney recalled. “I think that was crucial in persuading him.”
One European policymaker who attended a Ukraine-hosted peace conference in Switzerland last month said Harris “spoke strongly” and appeared at ease with other leaders, but warned that decisiveness was more important than “politeness,” adding that “Russia and China will certainly test the new president when they don’t know him.”
If elected, Ms. Harris’ most complex foreign policy issue is likely to be the bloody conflict in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians in the months since a cross-border attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Harris said, What happens after the battle is over?
Biden has billions of dollars It has provided generous military support to the Israeli government and has been reluctant to withhold aid despite growing discontent with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Regarding civilian casualties caused by war.
But while Biden issued cautious criticism of Israel over the winter, Harris declared the war a “humanitarian catastrophe” — comments she made during a speech in Alabama that were widely seen as more assertive at the time. More than the president.
Aides to Harris said her comments were in line with the administration’s call for a ceasefire, but acknowledged her strong tone and choice to evoke graphic images of children feeding on animals and women giving birth to malnourished babies to pressure Israel to provide more aid to Gaza.
Ms. Harris was also an early advocate of preparing for a post-conflict situation, directing Mr. Gordon and Vice National Security Adviser Ilan Goldenberg to work with Mr. Biden’s White House advisers and the State Department to devise proposals for a lasting peace in the region. Ms. Harris was the first U.S. official to urge Arab leaders to confront the issue. Aides said he told many at a meeting in Dubai in December that post-war planning had to be top of the agenda.
Her focus on Palestinian suffering has given hope to some critics of the administration’s Israeli policies, but some analysts have warned not to expect any major policy shifts if she wins in November.
“There’s been an effort to find a divide between Harris and President Biden on foreign policy issues,” said Haley Soifer, who served as Harris’ national security adviser while on the Senate Intelligence Committee and is now president of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “I don’t see a divide.”
