Aftandilian Publishes Op-Ed on Trump’s Foreign Policy
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent Op-Ed on the apparent rift between presidential candidate Donald Trump’s stances on foreign policy issues and the traditional philosophies of the Republican party.
Aftandilian’s article, entitled “Trump’s Stands Go Against Republican Foreign Policy Positions,” was published in the July 24, 2016 edition of The Arab Weekly.
From the text of the article:
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, despite giving lip service to party “unity”, has staked out foreign policy positions that go strongly against the party’s traditional philosophies.
Nonetheless, Trump’s positions are unlikely to hurt him in the November election with party-line voters because he has captured their mood on a number of key issues.
Trump realises that to beat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the general election he will need to galvanise Republicans, even those who voted against him in the primaries, which is why he mentioned party “unity” and gave establishment Republicans key roles in drafting the party platform. This also was the major factor in his choice of running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence.
Trump said he chose Pence, a staunch conservative, because advisers emphasised the importance of “party unity”.
Although Pence is likely to be a loyal running mate, he has differed with Trump on such issues as the Iraq war of 2003 (Pence voted for it when he was in Congress; Trump said he opposed it), free trade (Pence supported the North American Free Trade Agreement) and on Muslim immigrants (Pence has called Trump’s proposal for a ban offensive and unconstitutional).
You can read the entire Op-Ed here.
Aftandilian spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999). Learn more about him here.