Despite the rise of polarization, some Democrats and Republicans have continued to join together in coalitions on important U.S. foreign policy issues. In a new article in a special issue of the German journal Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, SIS Professor Jordan Tama asks: to what extent might these reservoirs of bipartisanship survive the intense partisanship associated with the 2024 election?

This paper examines the resilience of bipartisanship by analyzing U.S. debates over policy toward three key security partners: Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Across all three cases, it finds neither consistent bipartisanship nor simple partisan polarization. Instead, each debate reflects a mix of party-line disagreement, divisions within both parties, and limited cross-party cooperation. Democrats and Republicans often align differently depending on the issue, suggesting that while pockets of bipartisanship remain in U.S. foreign policy, broad and stable agreement is increasingly difficult to sustain.

Read the full article here.