US Foreign Policy: Comparing Republican and Democratic Candidates’ Electoral Rhetoric with Their Actions in Office
https://doi.org/10.46272/2587-8476-2025-16-4-21-38
Abstract
The article is devoted to making sense of discrepancies between electoral rhetoric of Republicans and Democrats in the United States and their real actions by comparing their foreign policy approaches. The problem is seen through examples of Donald Trump’s, Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s presidencies. The article considers the time period from 2008 to 2025. The aim is to show the contradictory links between domestic and foreign policies in their development, based on academic materials published in Russia and abroad. The methods include general scholarly tools: descriptive-narrative analysis, discourse analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, case study, and holism. Theoretical framework is constructivism as the most appropriate instrument to explain all the multifaceted nature of the problem. Among other aspects, the common ground is defined within bipartisan consensus on how to develop relations with the regions that the US deems vitally important as well as internal contradictions within the parties on these issues – from Europe and the Asian-Pacific Region to the Middle East and Latin America. In conclusion, the author argues that electoral pledges aim at satisfying expectations of voters, donors and lobbyists, but not necessarily translate into real decisions after winning the race. The novelty of the study consists in an attempt to diversify the discourse about the intertwined nature of the US foreign and domestic politics.
About the Author
P. G. Koshkin
Arbatov U.S. and Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISKRAN)
Russian Federation
Competing Interests:
Russian Federation
Pavel G. Koshkin, PhD (Philology), Senior Research Fellow
2–3, Khlebny lane, Moscow, 121069
Competing Interests:
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
References
1. Abuduresuli, Nafeisha. “Rhetorical Strategies in English-Language US Political Rhetoric Toward China (Based on the 2024 Election Debates and Media).” Litera, no. 5 (2025): 166–176 [In Russian].
2. Batalov, Eduard Ya. Russian Idea and American Dream. Moscow: Progress-Traditsiya, 2009 [In Russian].
3. Belousov, Alexander B. “Contemporary Practice of Lobbying in USA.” Research Yearbook, Institute of Philosophy and Law, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 13, no. 2 (2013): 69–86 [In Russian].
4. Bunina, Anastasia A., Alexandra R. Voitolovskaya, and Victoria Yu. Zhuravleva. “Presidential Election 2024 in the USA: Electoral Shift in Bipartisanship Crisis.” Analysis and Forecasting. IMEMO Journal, no. 3 (2024): 12–26 [In Russian].
5. Burdina, Elena V. “Approaches Towards Russia in US 2016–2024 Presidential Campaigns: A Comparative Perspective.” Vestnik of Moscow State Linguistic University. Social Sciences, no. 4 (2024): 9–16 [In Russian].
6. Garusova, Larisa N. “U.S. Foreign Policy in the Reflection of Modern American Society.” Oriental Institute Journal, no. 2 (2020): 57–66 [In Russian].
7. Davydov, Alexey A. “The U.S. Foreign Policy Concept of Democracy Promotion.” Human. Community. Management 18, no. 4 (2017): 22–43 [In Russian].
8. Dolgikh, Fedor I. “Lobbying in the USA as a Competitive Tool.” Journal of Modern Competition 16, no. 5 (2022): 116–129 [In Russian].
9. Ivanova, Nadezhda A. “From Democrats to Republicans: Israel in U.S. Foreign Policy in 1952 and 1953.” Moscow University Bulletin. Series 8: History, no. 6 (2022): 109–121 [In Russian].
10. Kislitsin, Sergey V. “Modern Transatlantic Relations as Seen through the U.S. Republican Party’s Ideology.” Intelligentsia and the World, no. 4 (2019): 61–72 [In Russian].
11. Olshvang, Dmitry V. Amerika vybiraet: ot Trumena do Trampa. Prezidentskie vybory v SShA s 1948 g. Kniga 1. Moscow: Prospekt, 2022 [In Russian].
12. Olshvang, Dmitry V. Amerika vybiraet: ot Trumena do Trampa. Prezidentskie vybory v SShA s 1948 g. Kniga 2. Moscow: Delibri, 2025 [In Russian].
13. Pechatnov, Vladimir O. From Jefferson to Clinton: The Democratic Party of USA in the Struggle for the Voters. Moscow: Nauka, 2008 [In Russian].
14. Sogrin, Vladimir V. American Ideologies of the 17th–21st Centuries. Moscow: Ves Mir, 2024 [In Russian].
15. Sushentsov, Andrey A. “The Foreign Policy Platforms of the U.S. Republican Party: Isolationists, Realists, Neoconservatives.” Tetradi po konservatizmu, no. 1 (2016): 47–55 [In Russian].
16. Timofeev, Oleg A. “Diskussii mezhdu demokraticheskoi i respublikanskoi partiyami SShA o strategii v otnoshenii Kitaya.” Vestnik Amurskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Gumanitarnye nauki, no. 58 (2012): 22–29 [In Russian].
17. Frolova, Olga A. “The Influence of Polarization of American Society on Nature and Interests of Political Parties of the USA.” Vestnik RUDN. Seriya: Politologiya, no. 4 (2011): 113–121 [In Russian].
18. Borg, Stefan. “‘A Battle for the Soul of This Nation’: How Domestic Polarization Affects US Foreign Policy in Post-Trump America.” International Journal: Canada’s Journal of Global Policy Analysis 79, no. 1 (2024): 22–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/00207020241232986.
19. Carreras, Miguel, Giancarlo Visconti, and Igor Acacio. “The Trump Election and Attitudes Toward the United States in Latin America.” Public Opinion Quarterly 85, no. 4 (2021): 1092–1102. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfab055.
20. Daddow, Oliver. International Relations Theory. London: SAGE Publications, 2017.
21. Drutman, Lee. The Business of America is Lobbying: How Corporations Became Politicized and Politics Became More Corporate. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
22. Green, Mark. Selling Out: How Big Corporate Money Buys Elections, Rams Through Legislation, and Betrays Our Democracy. New York: Regan Books, 2002.
23. McFaul, Michael. Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder. New York; Boston: Mariner Books, 2025.
24. Mutch, Robert E. Campaign Finance: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
25. Rubenzer, Trevor. Today’s Foreign Policy Issues: Democrats and Republicans. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2017.
26. Sides, John, Daron Shaw, Matt Grossmann, and Keena Lipsitz. Campaign and Elections: Rules, Reality, Strategy, Choice. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2012.
27. Stratmann, Thomas, and Amberly Dozier. “Lobbying in the United States.” In The Political Economy of Lobbying: Channels of Influence and Their Regulations, edited by Karsten Mause, and Andreas Polk, 289–313. Cham: Springer, 2024.
28. Touzani, Fouad. “Republicans vs Democrats. A Comparative Look at Congress Foreign Policy in the MENA Region.” Interdisciplinary Political Studies 9, no. 2 (2023): 129–173. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20398573v9n2p129.
29. Wendt, Alexander. Social Theory of International Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Zakaria, Fareed. The Post-American World. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2008.
Review
For citations:
Koshkin P.G. US Foreign Policy: Comparing Republican and Democratic Candidates’ Electoral Rhetoric with Their Actions in Office. Journal of International Analytics. 2025;16(4):21-38. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.46272/2587-8476-2025-16-4-21-38
Views:
372
JATS XML
Email this article 