Four UW-Madison professors analyzed the future of foreign policy in the Middle East for the next president during a panel discussion Monday night.
The forum, held at the Lowell Center, addressed upcoming shifts in international relations in the region, emphasizing the expected changes in U.S. executive policy after the 2008 presidential election.
Nadav Shelef, a UW-Madison professor of political science and specialist on Israeli politics, said much of what presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain call foreign policy is only political speech and doesn't necessarily represent what they will implement.
Whoever gets into office will modify his foreign policy,"" Shelef said.
Shelef said the ongoing economic crisis, not foreign policy, is likely to be the focus for the incoming president.
""I think the next president will be bogged down in domestic policy for a while,"" Shelef said, adding that as a result, Middle East foreign policy will ""take a backseat.""
Jeremi Suri, a UW-Madison professor of history and specialist on American foreign policy, said there are not many differences between the two candidates on their Middle East policies.
""There's a great similarity between what the candidates intend to do. There's a difference in the way they'll do it,"" Suri said.
According to Suri, either candidate would oversee a significant shift of troop levels from Iraq to Afghanistan in the near future.
Suri said McCain's approach toward Afghanistan would apply policies previously implemented in the Iraq war, but Obama would consider a new approach altogether - a strategy the Bush administration is researching in its last few months.
Joe Elder, a UW-Madison professor of sociology and specialist on South Asia, highlighted the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.
""The Taliban are better-based, control more territory and have wider support than [at] almost any time in the past,"" Elder said.
Elder also said the Pakistani government - a key ally in the war against the Taliban - no longer has the motivation to continue fighting against the militia's strongholds in its northern and western tribal areas.
""From what Obama and McCain have said, their comments are pretty peripheral and pretty unimportant,"" Elder said about the candidates' positions toward Afghanistan and Pakistan.
