A familiar foreign policy

In a ForeignPolicy.com exclusive today, Marcia Pally, a professor at NYU, asks whether we can expect to see a foreign policy shift emerge from Washington now that the Democrats are back in control of the House, possibly the Senate, and gearing up for a serious bid for the White House. She finds that the Democrats have far more in common with President Bush than they care to admit.

[W]hen it comes to American foreign policy, the shift will be far less dramatic. The reason isn’t simply that foreign-policy decisions typically lie in the domain of the executive. It is because President George W. Bush’s approach to America’s role in the world is not as remarkable as it is often claimed to be. …Indeed, the foreign policies of both parties have never been substantially different. As they look ahead to the race for the Oval Office in 2008, Democrats are not likely to stray far from Bush’s foreign policy, as it is a tradition partly of their own making.