US November elections; Around the world, concern over the global impact of U.S. elections

World capitals on Wednesday braced for a new political order in Washington, as policymakers and analysts tried to assess the impact on foreign policy of a new Republican-led U.S. House, a diminished Democratic majority in the Senate and an American president many fear has been left weakened.

The midterm elections were watched particularly closely in China, which emerged as a villain in campaign ads by candidates railing against American jobs being shipped overseas. Some feared congressional Republicans, more mistrustful of China's intentions, would pressure the Obama administration to take a tougher line with Beijing on such issues as technology exports, cooperation on clean energy projects and Chinese subsidies to state-owned companies that put U.S. firms at a disadvantage.

"The American political situation will become more turbulent and less predictable than before," he said. "It looks like American voters are rushing from one side to another. And the domestic political turbulence in the United States will have a huge impact on the world."

Note EU-Digest: Many of these fears are overstated. The polls taken right after the mid-term US elections show that more than 75% of the US voters actually voted against, not for someone or any different political ideology. 

The positive news among all these gloom and doom scenarios is that with the Presidency and the Senate still in control of the Democrats, both parties will need to seriously start looking at the issues facing America through "bi-partisan" glasses. If not, the US could be in deep trouble.

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