Why won't Elizabeth Warren reveal her foreign policy positions?

But to no one’s surprise, she didn’t mention Obama’s favored counterterrorism tool: drone strikes. Warren, who had three brothers who served in the military, has long avoided the topic. It’s not the only issue that the freshman senator has been quiet on. She has said little about U.S. policy toward Russia, for instance—or Africa or Latin America for the matter. On Asia, she’s been equally quiet. She’s one of only a few senators not to have taken an overseas trip while in office. (She has a trip to Israel planned for after the midterms.) She has always supported President Obama’s timetable for withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan, but has not said whether she supports leaving residual troops there. In 2012, MassLive posed 10 questions to her and then-Senator Scott Brown on different foreign policy issues. Her responses were full of generic platitudes, offering almost no insight into her positions. “The United States must continue to stand up for the universal values this country was founded on, including free speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement,” Warren answered when asked about China’s human rights abuses. “I support the U.S. government’s efforts to connect with the Chinese government on these issues, and I hope that both governments will continue to build those connections in the future.” Her website is no less illuminative. On Iran, she takes the radical position that “United States must take the necessary steps to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.”

Even her one clear foreign policy position, on Israel, doesn’t shed much light on her broader worldview. Some liberals may be dismayed that her moderate stance, but as Paul Waldman points out at The American Prospect, her position is similar to that of almost every other politician on Capitol Hill. It’s boilerplate language from a senator who doesn’t spend much time thinking about foreign policy. “[Y]ou can call these comments conservative, in that they justify the Israeli government’s actions without questioning the resulting civilian deaths,” Waldman writes. “But the stance she articulates is essentially that of the entire American political elite, both Democratic and Republican.” As for the $225 million in aid she supported, the measure passed unanimously in the Senate and 395-8 in the House. It’s not like her position sets her apart from the Democratic Party.