The Global Election

Is there anything the US can do in Syria? Will the diplomatic success of the Iran deal be built upon? Will stability be prioritised over democracy (if that ever actually works)? And will the US still be engaged in the Middle East at a time when many Americans would rather they weren’t involved at all? Monocle’s Steve Bloomfield is joined by Sir William Patey – former UK ambassador to Iraq, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia – alongside Chatham House’s Lina Khatib and analyst Bill Law.

Is the US isolating itself from the rest of the world? There’s more to this story than Donald Trump and his ‘America First’ rhetoric. There appears to be a growing unease in the US about its engagement with the rest of the world. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have damaged the idea of America and its military might, while concerns over the economy have led to many – on both left and right – questioning the wisdom of free trade. Even if Hillary Clinton wins there is no guarantee that the US will want to engage as much with the rest of the world as it has over the past 70 years. Some may argue that that’s a good thing – but what will it mean if the US leaves the rest of us alone? Monocle’s Steve Bloomfield is joined by two European former foreign secretaries: Poland’s Radek Sikorski and the UK’s Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

Despite being an issue on which both candidates have very different views, climate change hasn’t played much of a role in this year’s election – in fact, there wasn’t a single mention of it in any of the three presidential debates. Hillary Clinton is likely to continue many of the policies set out by Barack Obama and fully supports the recent Paris agreement. Donald Trump, meanwhile, has dismissed climate change as a “hoax”. Steve Bloomfield is joined by Connie Hedegaard, the EU’s former commissioner for Climate Action and Michael Jacobs, one-time advisor to UK prime minister Gordon Brown and a former senior advisor to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.

For 15 years, American foreign policy has been dominated by a single word: terrorism. Barack Obama may not use the phrase “global war on terror”, America’s main enemy may have shifted from al-Qaeda to Isis and the tools used in the fight may have changed dramatically but terrorism – that imperfect way of describing a complex battle – remains America’s over-riding fear. In this election the two candidates have very different world views – and very different plans for how to deal with terrorism. Monocle’s Steve Bloomfield is joined by former UK counter-terrorism chief Chris Phillips, security adviser Sally Leivesley and professor of peace studies at Bradford University Paul Rogers.

Of all the issues raised by this election that could have an impact on the rest of the world, the economy is the biggest – and the scariest. Economic decisions in the US can have an outsized influence elsewhere: if the US is motoring along nicely, so are the rest of us; if the wheels fall off there, the crash will be felt elsewhere too. Monocle’s Steve Bloomfield is joined by Harvard economics professor Ken Rogoff, economist and broadcaster Linda Yueh and Martin Sandbu of the ‘Financial Times’ to discuss the potential ramifications of a Trump and Clinton presidency.

Europe doesn’t always like to admit this but it needs the US. The US economy has an outsized effect on Europe’s, while Europe often needs the diplomatic and (sometimes) military heft of the US. All of which means that those of us in Europe are keenly watching what happens in the US this November. Trump’s few foreign-policy pronouncements have filled many Europeans with fear. Are they right to be afraid? Monocle’s Steve Bloomfield is joined by Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis; Quentin Peel, former foreign editor of the ‘Financial Times’; and Europe correspondent for the ‘The Irish Times’, Suzanne Lynch.

At some stage in the near future China is likely to overtake the US as the world’s largest economy. The nations are clashing diplomatically too – over what the US sees as Chinese aggression in the South China Sea and what China sees as American interference in “their” region. What would the election of Trump or Clinton mean for US relations with China – and who would Chinese leaders prefer? Monocle’s Steve Bloomfield is joined by Chas Freeman, president Nixon’s interpreter at his famous meeting with Mao in 1972; Rana Mitter, the director of the Oxford China Centre; Kerry Brown author of ‘The Rise of Xi Jinping’; and the Chinese novelist Diane Wei Liang.

Donald Trump has refused to say that he’d back a Nato ally if they were under attack, suggested that South Korea and Japan should not be protected by the US and defended Russia’s annexing of Crimea. Under his presidency would the US still be the world’s policeman? We discuss this along with the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency and ask how much her foreign policy will differ from President Obama’s. Monocle’s Steve Bloomfield is joined by Richard Shirreff, Nato’s former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Xenia Wickett from Chatham House and one-time Kremlin advisor Alexander Nekrassov.

The United States votes for a new president in November. But this isn’t an election that affects only Americans – it matters to the rest of the world too. From war and peace, to the economy and the environment, what happens in America has an impact on us all – and a large part of that is influenced by the president, whoever he or she may be. Join Steve Bloomfield and guests as they discover what this election could mean for the rest of the world.