Where Donald Trump stands on foreign policy

On Tuesday, November 8, Americans will go to the polls and elect the next president.

Some of the most daunting tasks facing the next president come in the realm of foreign policy.

The next president will have to negotiate with a rising China, a newly resurgent Russia, a defiant North Korea, and a drawn out civil war in Syria, among other issues.

We looked at where Donald Trump stands on some of the most pressing foreign-policy questions facing the US today.

The Iran Deal

The nuclear pact between the US and Iran offers Iran about $100 billion in relief from international sanctions in exchange for halting its nuclear program for the next 10 years.

The pact represents a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's foreign-policy legacy as he prepares to leave office. But it has been viciously attacked by conservative hardliners both in the US and Iran.

Donald Trump has promised to rip up the Iran deal on day one of his presidency and said that it's "one of the worst deals I've ever seen negotiated" in "[my] entire life."

Trump discussed of the Iran deal in his speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio:

"Iran, the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism, is now flush with $150 billion in cash released by the United States - plus another $400 million in ransom. Worst of all, the nuclear deal puts Iran, the number one state sponsor of radical Islamic terrorism, on a path to nuclear weapons

"In short, the Obama-Clinton foreign policy has unleashed ISIS, destabilized the Middle East, and put the nation of Iran - which chants 'death to America' - in a dominant position of regional power and, in fact, aspiring to be a dominant world power."

Skye Gould/Business Insider

Syria, Iraq, and ISIS

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that deposed Saddam Hussein, the US has maintained a constant presence in the country as it struggles to establish new, credible leadership.

Meanwhile, Syria descended into chaos after its president, Bashar Assad, violently suppressed pro-democracy demonstrators in 2011. In both nations, the Islamic State has risen as a powerful and brutal military force in direct opposition to the West. In 2014, the US intervened in the conflict by offering funding, training, and airstrikes to support moderate opposition to Assad's regime.

In the same year, ISIS, an offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, filled the power vacuum in the desert along the borders of the two adjacent, troubled nations. By almost all measures, ISIS has lost ground militarily since its peak. But it has continued to carry out or inspire attacks overseas.

Trump has repeatedly referenced a plan to destroy ISIS. But he has refused to reveal the details, at different times saying he didn't want his political opponents to parrot the idea and that he wants the US to be more unpredictable. Most recently, Trump said he would get counsel from top generals before deciding on a plan.

"They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS. We have no choice. Any nation who shares in this goal will be our friend in this mission," Trump said.

Trump maintains that he knows more about ISIS "than the generals do," and that US military's generals have been "reduced to rubble" under Obama's presidency.

Terrorism

There have been multiple lone-wolf-style attacks on US soil in in the last year. Mass shootings last year, according to one definition of the term, happened more than once daily on average.

In at least one case - the shooting in Orlando that left nearly 50 people dead - the shooters have expressed support for overseas terror groups.

Trump has proposed a ban on all Muslims entering the country from "terror states" "until we figure out what the hell is going on," suggesting that Muslim immigrants to the US may be allied with ISIS or other anti-Western forces. He has since suggested a system of "extreme vetting" in immigration.

He has also repeatedly criticized Clinton and Obama for refusing to use the words "radical Islamic terror."

NATO and Russia

Founded in 1949 by democratic nations in Europe and North America to defend against the spread of communism, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is the most powerful military alliance the world has ever known.

Though the Soviet Union has collapsed, Russia, under President Vladimir Putin's rule, has risen again to become a world power and a military threat.

Putin runs Russia with near total autonomy and violated international law with the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. Putin has been accused of having dissenters killed, war crimes, weaponizing the Syrian refugee crisis to fracture unity within the European Union, and multiple cyber attacks on the US.

Despite NATO's size and strength, the migrant crisis, anxieties about terrorism, and strained economies present real weaknesses that experts say Putin has deftly exploited. Militarily, US generals concede that Russia poses real threats to the US.

Furthermore, Russia supports Syria's Bashar Assad, while the US supports opposition forces. In Syria, Eastern Europe, and even the Pacific, Russia promotes causes contrary to the interests of the US and the democratic West.

Trump departs from orthodoxy in US politics in that he embraces the totalitarian leader Putin. Donald Trump has criticized the NATO alliance as "obsolete," and welcomed praise from Putin.

When pressed to distance himself from Putin at NBC's Commander-in-Chief Forum earlier in September, Trump suggested that Putin is a better leader than Obama.

"He is very much of a leader. The man has very strong control over his country ... You can say, 'oh, isn't that a terrible thing,' I mean, the man has very strong control over his country," Trump said. "Now it's a very different system, and I don't happen to like the system, but certainly in that system he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader."

In the past, he has also called on Russian hackers to undermine the US election by releasing Clinton's deleted emails from her time as secretary of state, though his campaign later said it was a joke.

Experts look at the hacking and leaking of information from the Democratic National Committee, for which they point the finger at Russia, as a sign that Putin welcomes a Trump presidency.

Israel

Israel is one of the US's most reliable allies, and one of the biggest clients for foreign military sales.

Israel has been accused of wrongdoing in pushing out Palestinians from areas like the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Many Middle Eastern states, most prominently Iran, have come to resent the US for the alliance.

Peace between Israel and Palestinians remains one of the most elusive and sought-after solutions on the world stage.

Trump has questioned the US's military alliances generally but claims to remain resolute in supporting Israel. As he fancies himself a world-class negotiator and deal maker, he's expressed genuine interest in trying to establish himself as neutral between Palestine and Israel and eventually striking a deal for peace between them.

"I think it's probably the toughest negotiation of all time," said Trump in a March GOP debate. "But maybe we can get a deal done."

North Korea

Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, North Korea has been a stronghold of communism and totalitarianism under the Kim dynasty. Recently, Kim Jong Un has made startling progress in developing nuclear warheads and advanced, long-range missiles to launch them.

Perhaps no regime on earth is as openly antagonistic toward the US as North Korea. Only China has any modicum of influence over the Hermit Kingdom.

Trump has repeatedly questioned the wisdom of the US's alliance with South Korea, where more than 25,000 troops are stationed. He has also suggested that the US should pull away from Japan, musing about the country developing its own nuclear weapons to defend itself.

Trump hopes his proposed hardline trade stance toward China would convince the country to intervene in North Korea.

"China has … total control over North Korea," Trump told "Fox & Friends" in January. "And China should solve that problem. And if they don't solve the problem, we should make trade very difficult for China."