On the Friday before a general election, Iowans don't think much about foreign affairs. In the background, the Iowa National Guard deployed thousands of Iowans to Afghanistan, and we may be aware of that, but that is about it.

There is a NATO summit coming up next Tuesday where the future of the alliance will be discussed. NATO is not even in the background for most Iowans.

Last Tuesday, Iran began loading nuclear fuel rods into the core of its first nuclear reactor. We are not talking about that and few Iowa media outlets carried the story.  

Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) reviewed Republican participation in foreign relations during a talk about the New START Treaty at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC on Wednesday. According to Lugar, the junior members of the Republican Caucus want less work on foreign relations and mark time until they can “get on the appropriations committee and bring home the bacon.” If you are interested in some of the reasons Senators are generally apathetic about foreign policy, it is worth the hour to hear Senator Lugar's views on this.

The United States' relationship with Turkey appears to be beginning to unravel. Pakistan's civil government is unstable. Japan is concerned with China's increasing hegemony on the high seas. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals point to sub-Saharan Africa as a place where life is getting worse by those or any measurements. Extremists have been moving into Yemen and Somalia. North Korea is preparing for a succession of leadership that will have implications for the region. The United States has a stake in all of these issues and very few Iowans are talking about them.

On the Friday before a general election, all eyes turn inward towards the race to November 2nd. Foreign relations falls into a kind of limbo managed by professional government diplomats and the military.

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) has scheduled a lame duck session of the Senate and the question is whether the Senators will be engaged enough to accomplish anything. After the elections, as many as a fifth of the Senators will be lame ducks themselves, likely questioning why they are even in session during the holiday season. The New START Treaty is the only substantial foreign relations item slated for consideration during the session, according to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL). Whether New START will actually be debated is an open question.

At Blog for Iowa we are not much different than anyone else. We are focused on the election as well, and the new landscape for foreign relations that will result once the election is over. If Republicans win, the expectation is that the United States will become increasingly isolationist, self-centered in a way that seeks to exploit foreign relations rather than build them. We each have a stake in foreign relations, even if the election is currently occupying us.

So, for what may be the hundredth time, this is a reminder to vote early or on election day and tell your friends to do likewise. It feels like nagging, but the world is calling on the United States to lead, and the country cannot afford the turning inward to last beyond November 2. That's possible only if Democrats hold their own.