That’s especially true in the 2016 race for The White House. While the vast majority of the Americans will remain blissfully ignorant when it comes to the nuances, the electorate generally understands a handful of very basic concepts: 1) Russia is resurgent; 2) ISIS is bad; 3) there are a lot of refugees in Europe and some of them are terrorists; 4) there’s something going on in Syria that is apparently connected to ISIS and refugees; 5) Iran is evil and will probably try to nuke somebody soon; 6) China is getting stronger.

Given voters’ generalized lack of insight into the specifics and overarching desire to be left in the dark about a

nything that suggests modern geopo

litics can’t be summed up as a black and white, West versus everyone, good versus evil, struggle to restore a benevolent American hegemony, candidates must be careful to convey a deep understanding of the issues without confusing a largely ignorant electorate. That will be difficult for Hillary Clinton, a veteran of modern statecraft who knows a thing or two about how complex the world is and how easy it is to screw things up (see Libya).