Foreign Affairs, the bimonthly journal published by the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations, has allotted the 2008 presidential candidates a forum to spell out their foreign policy positions without worrying about photo ops, pancake breakfasts, or having to pack the complexities of international relations into digestible sound bites. Starting with the July/August issue, one Democrat and one Republican have been given the space and the ear of America’s academics and elite. Without network TV cameras rolling, candidates take a half step away from rhetoric and express their positions with rare complexity and relevance. So far, Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain, Obama, and Romney have put their (or their staff writers’) pen to paper for the journal.
If you’re looking for more admittedly dry foreign policy news and analysis, peruse the transcripts of candidates’ speeches and various debates or check out the council’s pages for Defense/Homeland Security and US Strategy and Politics. —Eric Kelsey
