The Republican Party's candidate for the American presidency, Donald Trump, is clearly not the GOP establishment's first choice.
For outside observers, the paramount question is not who will be elected, but whether the United States will be an effective global leader in the years to come.
Trump's "America first" approach is obviously inconsistent with an expansive international leadership role and would lead the U.S. down a path of isolationism.
World leaders attending the 70th session of the U.N. General Assembly will have an opportunity to acquaint themselves with Trump and Clinton, and with the candidates' most senior advisers. Along with my country's president, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, I have personally met both candidates, and I predict that foreign leaders will leave these meetings less alarmed, but still uncomfortable.
To confront past and present demons, and to build a more just and stable world order, members of the international community must engage with one another, even when they hold conflicting views on particular issues. The U.S. must not – and cannot – withdraw into an opaque cocoon of false isolationism, or allow strategic global decisions to be clouded by domestic political considerations.
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