Democratic presidential underdog Martin O'Malley took a swipe Friday at front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton for mishandling the Arab Spring revolution in Libya and the subsequent deadly terrorist attack on the U.S.

The run up to next year’s election promises to involve more than the usual amount of debate about how America should engage the world. These three candidates – Clinton, Paul and Rubio – represent a stark contrast on that question.

The former Secretary of State, and likely 2016 presidential nominee for the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton has, along with the Obama administration, pushed the concept of ‘smart power’ – a convergence of hawkish ‘hard’ and a more internationalist ‘soft’ power in U.S. international relations. (...) A departure from the pre-2008 policies of George W. Bush, this move to ‘smart power’ is actually a rebranding of previous tactics which co-opts ‘soft power’ ideas of engagement to work alongside a still strong national security state. 

As Hillary Clinton moves toward a second run for the White House, her family’s global charitable work, mostly through the Clinton Foundation, has come under intense scrutiny. Raising concerns that the Clintons are creating conflicts of interest by blurring the lines between their political, business and charitable interests.