What Will Be the Top Foreign Policy Priorities for the Next U.S. President?
A Post Presidential Debate Discussion

CCTV's The Heat hosts Matthew RJ Brodsky and Daniel McCarthy, editor of The American Conservative and former Ron Paul campaign operative, to discuss the top overseas priorities for the next U.S. president following their final debate on foreign policy. Brodsky explained that the substantive disagreement between the two candidates was over a red line for Iran's uranium enrichment and Governor Romney's slightly more activist role vis-à-vis the civil war in Syria. He agreed with Romney's characterization that if radical Islam is to be defeated, it needs to occur in the Middle East itself and that requires American policies that prevent, rather than encourage, radical Islamist parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood from coming to power. The U.S. should work to strengthen the secular and liberal parties in the region. Brodsky agreed with Romney's assertion in the debate that Iran is the greatest national security threat facing the world. But McCarthy does not believe Iran is any more threatening than Pakistan, saying "there is not a scenario here in which a nuclear Iran could pose a threat to the United States -- it's simply not true." Brodsky disagreed and said a nuclear armed Iran would be "a catastrophe." On the issue of economic sanctions, Brodsky agreed that they were the toughest that Iran has faced but their only impact has been on the people. The correct metric for measuring the effectiveness of sanctions is the extent to which they affect the regime's behavior and by that metric, they are not working.