Busy with his day job and still enmeshed in a scandal about orchestrated traffic jams, Mr. Christie is, by his own admission, unschooled in the nuances of global affairs. He has already committed several foreign policy faux pas this year — by the unforgiving standards of Republican presidential politics, anyway.

They range from the minor (omitting the word “Israel” from a speech before an influential Jewish group) to the more meaningful (calling the West Bank the “occupied territories” before another influential Jewish group). Audible gasps ensued in a Las Vegas ballroom, and an apology from Mr. Christie soon followed.

“This is something the governor has struggled with, because it’s so far outside his realm of experience,” said Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science at Montclair State University in New Jersey who has studied Mr. Christie throughout his tenure.

“He is not,” she added, “a global guy.”

He is, however, trying to become one. This summer, Mr. Christie finished “Reagan at Reykjavik,” Ken Adelman’s history of the pivotal 1986 Cold War summit meeting. He has struck up a friendship with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, now an informal foreign policy tutor; is known to consult with former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger on major speeches that touch on world affairs; and is in contact with trusted Republican hands like Robert B. Zoellick, a former United States trade representative, former deputy secretary of state and former president of the World Bank.

After spending nearly three hours with Mr. Christie at the State House in July, spinning through the geopolitics of Asia, the economic future of Europe and the energy industry in Mexico, Mr. Zoellick described his pupil as “very quick.”

“Sometimes people will flag,” he said. “He didn’t at all. It could have gone on longer.”

Yet Mr. Christie’s tutorials appear less organized or far along than those of potential 2016 rivals like Mr. Paul or Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, and Mr. Christie has yet to articulate a distinct vision of America’s place in the world that strays from his party’s typical expressions of dismay with Mr. Obama and tributes to Ronald Reagan.

Mr. Christie has been candid about the gaps in his international understanding. Pressed on them during an appearance in Chicago this year, Mr. Christie conceded, “I don’t have the briefings and the background to be able to say that I understand all the intricacies of it.”