“International efforts to influence a US election are relatively uncommon,” Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and international affairs at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., told The Christian Science Monitor in an email. “Four years ago, about the only major international leader’s effort to try to shape the US election was Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s efforts to support Mitt Romney. Romney lost and that has hurt Israel’s standing in Washington ever since. That’s why it is rare – no nation wants to back the losing candidate and anger the winner.”
