Vice-president Kamala Harris, 59, is expected to stick largely to Joe Biden's foreign policy playbook on key issues such as Ukraine, China and Iran, but could strike a tougher tone with Israel over the Gaza war if she replaces the president at the top of the Democratic ticket and wins the United States November election.
As the apparent frontrunner for the nomination after Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her on Sunday, Harris would bring on-the-job experience, personal ties forged with world leaders, and a sense of global affairs gained during a Senate term and as Biden's second-in-command.
On a range of global priorities, said analysts, a Harris presidency would resemble a second Biden administration.
"She may be a more energetic player but one thing you shouldn't expect — any immediate big shifts in the substance of Biden's foreign policy," said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for Democratic and Republican administrations.
Harris has signalled, for instance, that she would not deviate from Biden's staunch support for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and would continue backing Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
A lawyer by training and a former California attorney-general, Harris struggled in the first half of Biden's term, not helped by being saddled early on with a major part of the intractable immigration portfolio amid record crossings at the US-Mexico border.
That followed a failed 2020 presidential campaign that was widely considered lacklustre.
If she becomes the nominee, Democrats will hope Harris will be more effective at communicating her foreign policy goals.
In the second half of Biden's presidency, Harris, the country's first black and Asian American vice-president, has elevated her profile and become a known quantity to many world leaders.
At this year's Munich Security Conference, she delivered a tough speech slamming Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and pledging "ironclad" US respect for Nato's Article 5 requirement for mutual self-defence.
On China, Harris has long positioned herself within Washington's bipartisan mainstream on the need for the US to counter China's influence, especially in Asia.
She would likely maintain Biden's stance of confronting Beijing when necessary while also seeking areas of cooperation, analysts say.
She has made several trips aimed at boosting relations in the economically dynamic region, including one to Jakarta in September to fill in for Biden at an Asean summit.
During the visit, she accused China of trying to coerce smaller neighbours with its territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.
Biden dispatched Harris on travels to shore up alliances with Japan and South Korea, key allies who worry about Trump's commitment to their security.
However, like her boss, Harris has been prone to the occasional verbal gaffe.
On a tour of the Demilitarised Zone between South and North Korea in September 2022 to reassert Washington's support for Seoul, she mistakenly touted a US "alliance with the Republic of North Korea", which aides later corrected.
If Harris becomes her party's standard-bearer and can overcome Trump's lead in pre-election opinion polls to win the White House, the Israel-Palestinian conflict would rank high on her agenda, especially if the Gaza war is still raging.
In March, she criticised Israel, saying it was not doing enough to ease a "humanitarian catastrophe" during its ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave.
Later that month, she did not rule out "consequences" for Israel if it launched a full-scale invasion of refugee-packed Rafah in southern Gaza.
Such language has raised the possibility that Harris, as president, might take at least a stronger rhetorical line with Israel than Biden, analysts say.
While her 81-year-old boss has a long history with a succession of Israeli leaders and has even called himself a "Zionist", Harris lacks his visceral personal connection to the country.
She maintains closer ties to Democratic progressives, some of whom have pressed Biden to attach conditions to US weapons shipments to Israel out of concern for high Palestinian civilian casualties.
But Halie Soifer, who served as national security adviser to Harris from 2017 to 2018, said Harris' support of Israel has been just as strong as Biden's.
Harris could also be expected to hold firm against Israel's regional arch-foe, Iran, whose recent nuclear advances have drawn increased US condemnation.
* The writers are from Reuters