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The Cable goes inside the foreign policy machine, from Foggy Bottom to Turtle Bay, the White House to Embassy Row.

Finally, a foreign-policy debate for the GOP candidates

The GOP presidential primary has been short on foreign-policy discussions — and the candidates have flubbed basic facts on the rare occasion they have addressed the topic. But the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation are working with CNN to provide voters with a greater insight into the candidates’ views by hosting a foreign-policy ...

By Josh Rogin

October 18, 2011, 11:36 AM

The GOP presidential primary has been short on foreign-policy discussions — and the candidates have flubbed basic facts on the rare occasion they have addressed the topic. But the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation are working with CNN to provide voters with a greater insight into the candidates’ views by hosting a foreign-policy focused debate next month in Washington.

"We hope that this debate will illuminate the candidates’ positions on national security and foreign policy at a critical time for America in the world," said AEI President Arthur Brooks, in a press release today.

Here are some of the questions we’ll be looking to get answered in the debate.

For Mitt Romney: Why does he think the reset policy with Russia "has to end," and how does he explain his record of outsourcing jobs to other countries, like China?

For Rick Perry: Does he want to stay in Afghanistan longer than the president or not? How would he fix an Israel policy that he has called, "naïve, arrogant, misguided, and dangerous?" And has he figured out yet how he would deal with a rogue, nuclear armed Pakistan?

For Herman Cain: Did he ever learn the name of the president of "Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?" Will he tell us who his foreign policy advisors are, if they exist? Also, did he ever figure out who are these mysterious "neoconservatives?" (Hint, see your debate hosts.)

For Jon Huntsman: How did he forget that we have a strategic dialogue with China, one that he participated in directly?

For Michelle Bachmann: Does she really think the Arab Spring is a negative development that Obama caused by "demonstrating weakness" and putting "a lot of daylight in our relationship with our ally Israel?"

For Newt Gingrich: Why was he for the United Nations before he was against it? And why did he call for a no-fly zone in Libya before criticizing Obama for intervening?

For Ron Paul: Does he really want to pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan immediately and what does he think would happen next?

For Rick Santorum: Nothing, we already know what he thinks about this stuff.

The debate will be on Nov. 15 at 8 PM. The venue has not yet been announced.

Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.

Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.

A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.

Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin