I’ve wondered for quite some time now just who Bernie Sanders turns to for advice on foreign policy, and who he’d look to serve in a Sanders administration and fill key foreign policy positions. My Google searches for foreign policy advisors in the past have come up empty each time.
Politico apparently had the same question and contacted the Sanders team to see if they had a full-time staff member for foreign policy on the team, but the request went unanswered. No one else in the foreign policy sphere seemed to know who was advising the Sanders team either.
Numerous Democratic foreign policy insiders contacted by POLITICO could not name anyone who regularly advises the Vermont Senator on world affairs — a stark contrast to a Clinton campaign teeming with several hundred foreign policy advisers. It is also a contrast to Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, which by this point in that campaign featured a cadre of prominent foreign policy hands, including former national security advisers Anthony Lake and Zbigniew Brzezinski.
Politico did, however, receive a reply to who Sanders and his Senate foreign policy aide, Caryn Compton, who apparently covers foreign policy for the Senator among about a dozen other issues, have consulted on foreign policy matters. Unfortunately, the people the Senator listed were surprised to hear they were considered advisors, and none indicated they’re supporting Senator Sanders for President.
When asked whether Sanders has a full-time campaign staffer who handles foreign policy issues, his campaign did not respond. And several people whom the Sanders campaign has cited as sources of national security advice tell POLITICO they barely know the socialist firebrand.
“Apparently I had a conversation with him last August,” said Tamara Cofman Wittes, a Brookings Institution Middle East scholar, after checking her calendar upon hearing that her name was on a list of people the Sanders campaign said he had consulted in recent months. “My vague recollection is that it was about [the Islamic State] but I don't really remember any of the details.” Wittes added that she backs Clinton.
“I don’t know how I got on Bernie Sanders’ list,” said Ray Takeyh, an Iran scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations who says he spoke to Sanders once or twice about the Iran nuclear deal at Sanders’ request in mid-2015.
It won’t come as a surprise to anyone here that the Senator has focused his candidacy on domestic economic issues rather than foreign policy, and no one would expect him to have more experience in foreign affairs than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Yet we often hear from supporters that the Senator’s judgment on foreign policy is extraordinary. For some reason he’s yet to receive the support of any foreign policy expert that I’m aware of, in contrast to his economic policies which have won support from some experts.
I think it’s a fair question for the election to ask just who Sanders trusts for foreign policy advice, considering his relative lack of experience, and who he would call upon as President for advice and who he’d ask to serve as Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and National Security Advisor. Senator Sanders seems to know few people of any import in foreign policy, and none appear to support his foreign policy views.