Jonathan Marcus is the BBC's diplomatic correspondent. He has written widely on European and US affairs. He is also the author of a book on the French far-right party, the National Front.
The accepted wisdom was that foreign policy was going to play an extraordinary role during this presidential campaign season. And it did, for a while. John McCain offered himself as the grownup on the subject and Barack Obama made up for his deficit by choosing a foreign policy honcho as his running mate. But the issue has suddenly disappeared on the campaign trail. The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus explains what happened:
"At the outset of this presidential race it looked as though foreign policy would be one of the dominant issues in the campaign.
Adapting the United States to a fast-changing world, extricating its armed forces from Iraq, and restoring the country's standing in the wake of "the global war on terror" would be sufficient foreign policy challenges for any new president. "
