Talk:Foreign policy doctrine

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I'm still curious: is there anything that truly unites these "doctrines" into a coherent whole? For common properties we seem to have:

They're statements by Presidents of significant world powers.
They're about foreign policy.

Of course, there are also many Presidential statements that meet the above requirements but never come to be labelled doctrines, so the above doesn't serve very well for a "definition" of the word.

Not that all words have exceptionless definitions; I'm all for Ludwig Wittgenstein and his "family resemblances". Nonetheless, it looks to me, an untrained observer, as if the different things we call so-and-so's doctrine have been lumped together in a pretty ad hoc manner. Does this seem to be the case for anyone else? --Ryguasu

McCain Doctrine

Is it not rather pro-Republican to list the doctrine of a Presidential candidate? I'm sure Obama and Hilary have their own 'doctrine', but like McCain, these are not yet established enough to warrant a page. I would suggest that this blank link is removed from the list. --Woodgreener (talk) 19:40, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's not an inappropriate link because John McCain's stance on foreign policy is not only well-known, and well-evolved, but because he has had an involved career in foreign relations as a Senator. A link to the Biden Doctrine (Senator Joe Biden) would, by that same token, not be inappropriate. 76.111.80.228 (talk) 19:25, 19 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I argue that it is inappropriate to include Sen. McCain's positions on foreign policy in this list of historical US foreign policy doctrines. Sen. McCain, while serving in the foreign policy arena for many years, never dictated the foreign policy of the United States and therefore can not set doctrine for the nation's foreign policy. The fact that the link goes to a page listing Sen. McCain's policy positions rather than a formal definition of his "doctrine" emphasizes my point. Adding a "McCain Doctrine" or "Biden Doctrine" degrades the quality and usefulness of this list. 71.252.100.85 (talk) 21:09, 1 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sooo, you don't think Senators are quite powerful enough to set the nation's foreign policy? You do know he was U.S. rather than a State Senator. Don't you? Better yet, if an ambassador is relevant here, then surely a senator is. 76.111.80.228 (talk) 00:46, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]