Saturday, September 8, 2012

Romney´s strange foreign policy


As someone that is NOT an American (Scandinavian) but still has a huge interest in the USA election, what concerns me about this election is the way which Mitt Romney seems to spend most of his campaign time and ads on critisising Obama and pointing out his faults but is very unclear on his own policies and how he himself intends to change things.  Whatever information is out there about his policies is very muddled and confusing. And it concerns me, as a European, that his foreign policy is very unclear.

He has the slogan "American age" and has clarified his policy towards several countries (which was still confusing) but he has absolutely no policy whatsoever when it comes to Europe or Africa according to his website. Two entire continents! I am concerned that if he becomes president, whatever positive relationships USA has established with European countries (Obama has been very successful in this regard as he is hugely popular over here) will deteriorate/turn negative because Romney won´t be able to handle things well enough.

Also what irks me is the fact that Romney keeps on talking about an American Age where America will lead the free world and be a superpower. It seems to me that he has forgotten that Europe is just as capable of leading the free world as America and that Europeans consider it a huge offense when Americans seem to think of themselves as superior and more able to lead the world. Europe is built on cooperation between nations and currently no one is aiming for that leadership card. Europeans are afraid that if Romney becomes president, his apparent desire for USA to lead the world  will mean that he won´t to look to Europe as an ally and a venue for cooperation for a better world.

Obama has a lot of faults and is not the perfect president but he has managed to establish very positive relationships with European countries and that is something we want to continue over here. Obama is very popular over here (All Scandinavians are huge Obama cheerleaders)  as he seems to have a more balanced world view that previous USA presidents haven´t had (such as Bush) and he is someone that is willing to cooperate with other nations. And that is very important to us.

Hopefully someone can clarify Romney´s foreign policy for me but from where I stand, Obama would make a better president than Romney and I know that most of Europe agrees with me.

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