Republican U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney makes his first major campaign speech on foreign policy Monday.
Mr. Romney will speak to students at the Virginia Military Institute in the town of Lexington - the country's oldest military academy.
So far, he has focused mostly on the economy and his plans to repeal President Barack Obama's health care reforms. But he has criticized the president's Middle East policy, saying Mr. Obama is letting the United States be at the mercy of events rather than shaping them.
Mr. Romney wrote in The Wall Street Journal last month that events are moving the country away from being able to protect its people and allies.
President Obama is in California, where on Monday he will dedicate a monument to the late leader of the United Farm Workers union, Cesar Chavez. Later, he will attend a fundraising dinner in San Francisco.