The United States is embarking on a potentially pivotal presidential election in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the party conventions are fast approaching, the identities of both the Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls are already clear: the incumbent Donald Trump will face off against former Vice President Joe Biden. Given the obvious temperamental and ideological differences between the two candidates, the election result looks to have potentially profound implications for the direction of US foreign and security policy. What are the key differences between the candidates when it comes to their understanding of America’s international role? How might Trump’s approach to international politics evolve during a possible second term in the White House? What would be the most important changes and continuities from the Trump era in the event of a Biden victory?
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Maria Annala
Maria Annala is a visiting research fellow at the Center on US Politics and Power at FIIA. She is an expert on US domestic politics and the author of "Trumpin kansa – keitä he ovat ja miksi he rakastavat johtajaansa" (Trump’s People – Who They Are and Why They Love Their Leader). From 2015 to 2019 she lived in Boston and worked as a freelance journalist, covering among other things the 2016 election and the first two years of the Trump administration for the Finnish News Agency STT and Lännen Media. Before that she worked as a managing editor at the Finnish News Agency.