By Richard Weitz
During Monday's foreign policy debate, Asia's future was an important topic. Dr. Richard Weitz breaks down the candidates' positions.
The foreign policy debate between Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama excluded certain important issues that were not among those questions selected by moderator Bob Shieffer. The three Asian issues given the most attention were Iran, China, and Afghan-Pakistan. And even on these issues the debate deepened uncertainty regarding the presidential candidates’ policies. This is only natural given the format, which requires the candidates to describe complex policies and issues in a few seconds and in an effort to sound forceful, reasoned, moderate, and decisive, with clever sound bites and with little opportunity to correct mistaken utterances. So as a service to readers let me try to clarify the differences between the public stances of the two candidates, as well as highlight other Asian issues that will likely preoccupy the next administration.
With respect to Iran, Obama insisted that, “as long as I'm president of the United States, Iran will not get a nuclear weapon,” noting how Iran could then threaten Israel, “provide nuclear technology” to terrorists, or catalyze “a nuclear arms race in the most volatile region of the world.” Tehran must choose, Obama insisted, between a diplomatic settlement that would “end their nuclear program or they will have to face a united world and a United States president, me, who said we're not going to take any options off the table.”
Still, Iranian leaders have an “opportunity to re-enter the community of nations” but only if they” abide by the rules that have already been established; they convince the international community they are not pursuing a nuclear program” through “inspections that are very intrusive,” and “over time, what they can do is regain credibility.”
Read the full 5 page story at The Diplomat