Foundation laid for a Hillary presidency

THE US Democratic Party's presidential candidate is articulating not just a single foreign policy doctrine, but a multiplicity of the so-called Hillary Doctrines, ranging from her interventionist approach to expanding US power abroad, to her argument that the subjugation of women worldwide threatens US national security.

An American foreign policy doctrine is not usually explicitly stated. It is implied. For instance, president Harry Truman never actually said: "Look here, today I am unveiling the Truman Doctrine."

He, however, said in a speech in March 1947 that the US would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces.