We sought to bring context to the foreign policy debates through our Issue Trackers, twenty-three in all, which charted the candidates’ views, votes, and occasional shifting stances on important foreign policy issues, while avoiding judgment on the merits of their positions. Written and regularly updated by our Chicago-based contributing editor Joanna Klonsky, the trackers quickly became essential reading for a wide range of mainstream media as well as numerous politically wired blogs.

In our daily “Morning Update” posts, we’d filter through the headlines, distilling the news down to just the most important foreign policy stories of the campaign that day.

Our regular “Quote of the Day” posts highlighted the candidates’ significant foreign policy statements on the pressing issue of the moment.

CFR.org also blogged live from the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in late summer 2008. On the blog, we posted interviews with convention delegates and political leaders, gauging their views of their candidates’ foreign policy platform. We reported from CFR’s series of foreign policy panels, featuring experts and statesmen like former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke, among others. You can look back at our coverage from the DNC here, and from the RNC here.

More than a year and a half since our first post, CFR.org’s campaign and transition coverage now comes to an end. All of CFR.org’s campaign and transition content will remain available on our Transition 2008 Archive page, including our candidate and cabinet profiles, Issue Trackers, expert analysis, and the blog itself.

Obama said the United States would “begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.” He also promised to work “tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.”

Obama characterized his administration’s approach to relations with the Muslim world. “[W]e seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” he said.

He also promised to work to relieve poverty around the world. “To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds,” Obama said. “And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect.”

–President Barack Obama, in his inaugural address on Tuesday.

The New York Times reports this morning that Obama’s transition period since he was elected lends some clues to how he will go about making decisions once in office. The article notes that Obama hasn’t been shy about making swift decisions, but at the same time has sought to tap into the nation’s intellectual dialogue to gauge the best policy decisions. The Wall Street Journal notes, however, that the burgeoning U.S. budget deficit could limit Obama’s ability to follow through on some of his objectives, and that how he prioritizes spending pledges could become one of the major early questions of his presidency. The Financial Times, meanwhile, has a new interactive looking at which members of the Democratic Party have been bolstered by Obama’s ascendence, and what it might mean for Washingon.

Background:

- CFR.org’s bio of Obama outlines his statements on many of the most urgent foreign policy questions confronting Washington as he takes office.

- CFR’s President Richard Haass advises Obama on many of these issues in an open letter published in Newsweek.

CONFIRMATION HEARINGS: Attorney General-designate Eric Holder denounced the use of torture (CSMonitor) in his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday.

“I will use every available tactic to defeat our adversaries, and I will do so within the letter and spirit of the Constitution,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. Janet Napolitano, nominated to be secretary of the Homeland Security Department, told a committee the nation’s transit system
needed to be made more secure (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Meanwhile, Susan Rice, nominated to be ambassador to the UN, said hoped to strengthen the “indispensable if imperfect” institution.

BIN LADEN: Obama described his approach to dealing with the threat posed by Osama bin Laden in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday. The United States must “so weaken [bin Laden's] infrastructure that, whether he is technically alive or not, he is so pinned down that he cannot function,” Obama said.

IRAQ: Vice President-elect Joe Biden met (Reuters) with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday in Baghdad. Biden “asserted the importance of cooperation … to implement the foreign troop withdrawal agreement signed by the two countries,” according to Maliki’s office.

TERROR: Transition and White House officials conducted a joint disaster drill (WashPost), laying out a hypothetical terrorist attack on transportation and other targets in multiple U.S. cities, at the White House on Tuesday morning.

However, we have also been reminded of the tragic humanitarian costs of conflict in the Middle East, and pained by the suffering of Palestinian and Israeli civilians. This must only increase our determination to seek a just and lasting peace agreement that brings real security to Israel; normal and positive relations with its neighbors; and independence, economic progress, and security to the Palestinians in their own state.”

–Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, in remarks at her Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

• Emphasized the U.S. commitment to nuclear nonproliferation. She said the United States would work with Russia to forge agreements for more reductions in nuclear weapons, and to take both country’s missiles off hair-trigger alert. She also pledged to work with the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and to restart negotiations on a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty.

• Said the United States would strengthen alliances “that have stood the test of
  time,” including NATO and ASEAN.

• Stressed a commitment to human rights, especially for women and children. “We still have a long way to go and the United States must remain an unambiguous and unequivocal voice in support of women’s rights in every country, every region, on every continent,” Clinton said.

• Said the United States would press Iran and Syria to become “constructive” actors in their region. With regard to Iran, Clinton asserted, “we are not taking any option off the table at all.”

ABC echoes the same tone, saying a few pointed questions are likely, but that the hearings are unlikely to produce major fireworks.

More broadly, however, Clinton’s likely accession as secretary of state marks a new phase of Washington foreign policy, and potentially opens some new power struggles. The Washington Post says a power triumvirate has emerged that includes Obama, Clinton, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair John Kerry, whom many had seen as the leading candidate for the secretary of state post. The article says it remains to be seen how potential disputes between these three officials will play out.

In an analysis, FOXNews says Clinton is likely to reiterate that if she is appointed, she will act as Obama’s subordinate, despite their differences on some foreign policy issues.

Background:
– Writing in Foreign Affairs during her presidential campaign, Clinton laid out her vision for American foreign policy.

- This CFR.org bio outlines Clinton’s statements on a wide range of pressing international issues.

Commentary:

- The New York Times asks ten experts for what they think are the most pressing questions the committee should ask Clinton during her hearings.

- A news analysis from Reuters looks at the foreign policy concerns that are likely to dominate as the Obama presidency gets underway.