MEĐUNARODNI PROBLEMI

The National Interest in An Era of Political Polarization: The Case of 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

Simić Dragan R. (University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia), dragan.simic@fpn.bg.ac.rs

Foreign and security policy, almost traditionally, play a small or minor role in US presidential elections. Nevertheless, this year’s election could be an exception, bearing in mind the global context of this year’s elections characterized by conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East and potentially in East Asia, as well as the fact that both main candidates were already presidents, meaning that we are largely familiar with their potential foreign policies. When, however, the prevailing classical meaning of the national interest is taken into consideration, the absence of a clear, elaborated and noncontradictory conception of this term is noticeable in the programs presented by both candidates. Considering the extremely high degree of political polarization of this year’s presidential elections little can be labeled with the adjective national, apart from the consensus regarding the policy towards the People’s Republic of China and where the threat is coming from. It is primarily about the „party” and, more narrowly - the individual interests of the presidential candidates themselves. In other words, national interests are indeed considered but under different terms, words and/or phrases.

Keywords: national interest, national security, foreign and security policy, United States of America, presidential election, political polarization, international order, Donald Trump, Joseph Biden