What effect (if any) would a Sanders Presidency have on American foreign policy?

[AdamHyde]

I'm a Brit, so I'm looking at this from the outside. So far as I see, there are two sides to this.

Firstly, there's image. He doesn't have the charisma of his predecessors and, as we all know, international relations isn't always about brains. Complex negotiations are smoothed by how well liked your leader is abroad, and when dealing with some more shady leaders (Putin) is almost a condition to negotiations. On top of that, charismatic leaders come off as trustworthy. In Obama's case, so trustworthy that both Cuba and Iran were willing to negotiate outcomes that (on balance) provide the US with significantly better outcomes.

Secondly,there's the ideology. I'll tell you now that European politicians can be incredibly stubborn, especially on the left. The same can be said for most of the world, in all honesty. They respect leaders that share at least some of their values, and understand world problems. After all, the US President will always have to work on the delivery of free healthcare and increased welfare spending in less developed or conflict-ravaged nations on the international stage; it never seems very sincere when (no matter what the pros or cons) the President doesn't want to deliver similar changes in the US.

So Sanders would be disadvantaged insofar as he's forgettable and lacks charisma, but his ideological commitment would make the US a bit more popular in a few of the world's least US-friendly states. Personally, I think he'll be worse than Obama (who's probably more respected abroad than you realise), but perhaps better than Bush (who was seriously unpopular abroad)