A “Barack O’Romney” State Department is at hand, says one scholar

Aaron David Miller

By Ari Bildner, Staff Writer

Washington, May 24 – How different would a second-term Obama State Department look from a Romney version?

A thought-provoking front-page Foreign Policy article today by veteran Middle East watcher and negotiator Aaron David Miller says the Republican’s foreign policy vision is, contrary to conventional wisdom, almost identical to Obama’s – except when it comes to Israel.

“Despite his campaign rhetoric, Romney would be quite comfortable carrying out President Obama’s foreign policy because it accords so closely with his own,” Miller writes.

His reasoning: a post 9/11 harmony of views, partly borne out of the successes and failures of the Bush administration, has emerged to align foreign policy priorities in four key areas including fixing domestic problems to strengthen America’s international reach and the need to take preemptive action against terrorist threats.

“A post Sept. 11 consensus is emerging that has bridged the ideological divide of the Bush 43 years,” Miller writes. “And it’s going to be pretty durable.”

Miller also is convinced that Romney’s foreign policy would maintain the current U.S. position toward Iran’s nuclear program.

“As for a U.S. strike, it’s becoming a bipartisan article of faith that the United States will not permit Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”

Yet the one area of foreign policy difference between the two camps, Miller says, is on the Arab-Israeli conflict. He sees Romney’s vision as guided by his “gut” as opposed to Obama’s more “calculating” stance:

The issue isn’t support for Israel’s security — both would be committed to that. It’s that damn peace process, which keeps turning up like a bad penny. Obama wants progress, and sees Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as largely responsible for the lack of it. He may want to push some bold initiative in a second term, but it won’t be so easy to do. For Romney, the peace process isn’t going to be a priority unless the Israelis and Palestinians — through violence or diplomacy — make it one.

Whether that convergence is seen from officials in Jerusalem as well is quite another matter.

Read the full article: Barack O’Romney