What will be the “Harris Doctrine”? Kamala Harris is now officially the Democratic Party’s nominee for president of the United States following Thursday night’s conclusion of the Democratic National Convention and she is currently leading in most polls. We are still more than two months away from election day and her election is far from certain, but just as it is important to think about how a second Trump administration would shape U.S. foreign policy, so it is with a first Harris term.
In many ways, the task is more challenging for Harris than for Trump. We already have the record of a full four-year Trump term with which to gauge his foreign policy. Based on what has been said by him and his campaign to this point, a second Trump term would be marked by the isolationist and unilateralist leanings of his first. That likely explains why international relations scholars and experts, including a fair number that identify as Republican, by and large favor Harris over Trump.
Unlike Trump, Harris does not have a four-year body of work to analyze. While she has been vice president for the past four years, vice presidents have marginal influence on the foreign policy of a presidency. Look no further than the current president himself, Joe Biden. While serving as vice president to Barack Obama, Biden’s preference early in Obama’s administration was to significantly scale back the U.S. troop commitment to Afghanistan. That didn’t happen, to Biden’s dismay.