Stanford experts pose five foreign policy questions to candidates

Mitt Romney and President Obama speak during the second presidential debate on Oct. Their third and final debate will focus on foreign policy. (Photo: Reuters) President Obama and Mitt Romney meet for their third debate to discuss foreign policy on Monday, when moderator Bob Schieffer is sure to ask them about last month's terrorist attack in Libya and the nuclear capabilities of Iran. In anticipation of the final match between the presidential candidates, researchers from five centers at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies ask the additional questions they want answered and explain what voters should keep in mind. The researchers are available to speak with reporters covering the debate and election. What can we learn from the Arab Spring about how to balance our values and our interests when people in authoritarian regimes rise up to demand freedom? What to listen for: First, the candidates should address whether they believe the U.S. has a moral obligation to support other peoples' aspirations for freedom and democracy. Second, they need to say how we should respond when longtime allies like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak confront movements for democratic change. And that leads to more specific questions pertaining to Arab states that the candidates need to answer: What price have we paid in terms of our moral standing in the region by tacitly accepting the savage repression by the monarchy in Bahrain of that country's movement for democracy and human rights?