The Fight for the Future of Democratic Foreign Policy: Which Debates Matter Most for 2028
Foreign Affairs · Thomas Wright ·
Which debates matter most for 2028.
The midterm elections mark the beginning of the Democratic Party’s 2028 presidential campaign. After two years of debate over the lessons of Kamala Harris’s defeat in the 2024 election, it promises to be one of the most open contests about the future of Democratic policies, including foreign policy, in generations. It also promises to be one of the most consequential. The strategic environment in 2029 is on track to be the most difficult and unforgiving since the height of the Cold War.
Democrats must therefore lay out their ideas early and see how they fare both with voters and against the trajectory of world events. The party is generally split into two camps: centrists who, when it comes to foreign policy, are focused on strategic competition, restoring the United States’ national power, and deepening alliances; and progressives, who propose a more affirmative agenda emphasizing shared challenges and global cooperation. In many ways, this divide has become familiar. But as the second Trump administration continues its project of overturning the post–World War II global order, the debates within each camp are at least as important as the disagreements between them.
If the party’s major foreign policy disagreements—on the future of the international order, on Israel, on artificial intelligence, on China, and on the global economy—are not litigated by prospective candidates, former officials, and prominent thinkers now, and voters are not given the chance to make an informed choice between coherent options, the first year of a Democratic administration could be consumed by indecision and infighting. Democrats must therefore understand where they stand on each of those questions, where centrists and progressives converge, and where the sharpest divisions now lie.
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