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The midterm election results were a strong rebuke of President Obama and the Democratic Party's stewardship of political power, but they turned almost entirely on domestic issues not foreign policy. Therefore, the foreign policy implications of the election are likely to be indirect rather than direct.

Even when foreign policy issues are an important factor in a midterm election -- think the public dissatisfaction with the Iraq War helping to fuel Democratic gains in 2006 -- it does not necessarily translate into a predictable change on those issues. The new Democrat-controlled Congress believed they had a mandate to force a rapid retreat from Iraq in 2007 and they tried very hard to impose that policy on the Bush administration. President Bush interpreted the 2006 election as a...