He has argued that reelecting Obama will result in Iran having a nuclear weapon — without explaining how. He has charged that Obama should have taken “more assertive steps” to force out the repressive regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad — but has said he is not “anxious to employ military action.” He accused Obama of tipping his hand to the Taliban by announcing a timeline for withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, but also accepts the 2014 timeline…

This year, Romney and Obama agree on the basic timeline of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan; Romney’s chief critique has been his assertion that the president’s actions are driven by political considerations. He says he would give greater deference to the generals on the ground…

Two areas where clear differences exist are on policy toward Syria and on defense spending. On Sunday, Romney reiterated his call for the U.S. to work with Turkey and Saudi Arabia “to organize and arm Syrian opposition groups” with the goal of forcing Syria’s Assad from power…

Yet Russia represents another instance in which Romney and Obama don’t differ much, despite the rhetoric. Romney has assailed Obama as trying to appease the Russians by scrapping aGeorge W. Bush-era plan to build a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe, and replacing it with a different plan to be completed by 2020. Yet Romney says he is willing to commit to the same timeline.