Hillary Clinton will deliver a major foreign policy address on Thursday morning in New York City in the wake of the Islamic State attacks on Paris, trying to carve out her own views without alienating President Barack Obama’s supporters.
The former secretary of state will outline “her strategy for defeating ISIS and eliminating the immediate threats it poses, as well as her plan for combatting radical jihadism more broadly,” according to her campaign.
She will also “lay out her vision for the role American leadership must play in supporting our allies, protecting our homeland, and forging a safer world.”
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Clinton, the Democratic candidate with the most foreign policy experience, struggled to articulate a definite strategy against the terrorist group during the party’s second presidential debate. Her speech on Thursday will clarify her position and attempt to demonstrate her strength on national security.
On the trail Clinton continually reminds voters that the election “is not only about electing a president, it is about electing our next commander in chief,” playing up her four years as secretary of state under President Obama. But, she and the president haven’t always agreed. She supports a Syria no-fly zone, for example, and she voted for the Iraq war.
In Iowa on Saturday night, Clinton emphasized that while the United States must take a leadership role in the fight against ISIS, “this cannot be an American fight” alone. She also declined to answer directly whether or not she thought that President Obama “underestimated” the power of the Islamic State.
“We have to look at ISIS as the leading threat of an international terror network,” she said. “It cannot be contained; it must be defeated.”
Clinton has called for the United States to allow 65,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees to the United States.
Clinton’s main opponent in the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders, often downplays foreign policy. During the debate when asked to comment on the Paris attacks during his opening statement, Sanders spoke briefly of the threats of global terrorism before transitioning to talk about the middle class. Although he has similarly called for the United States to accept more Syrian refugees, the Vermont senator routinely says that the largest national security threat we face is “climate change.”
Sanders, who has criticized Clinton on issues like the Iraq war, hasn’t given a major national security address because it takes a lot of time to write a “serious speech on serious issues.” He will instead be talking about democratic socialism.
