- Washington - In his first year in office, President Obama
tackled an impressive array of foreign policy challenges, adapting a response
focusing more on cooperation than confrontation, say foreign affairs specialists.
-
- Threats to world peace ranging from nuclear proliferation
to war in Afghanistan are being handled "remarkably well" by
Obama, says Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's national security
adviser from 1977 to 1981.
-
- Brzezinski, who managed tough challenges for the Carter
White House like the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and the Russian invasion
of Afghanistan, wrote recently in Foreign Affairs magazine that President
Obama has "redefined the U.S. view of the world" outside the
boundaries of the war on terrorism and "reconnected the United States
with the emerging historical context of the twenty-first century."
-
- Obama defined the new context as inclusion, cooperation
and what diplomats call multilateralism in his first major foreign policy
speech in Prague in April. Citing nuclear nonproliferation as a top priority,
he said we live in a more "interconnected world," in which global
threats to peace "demand that we listen to one another and work together;
that we focus on our common interests, not on occasional differences."
-
- http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/
- April/20090406115740eaifas0.9701763.html
-
- Multilateralism is a move in the right direction, says
Ambassador Rust Deming, a retired Foreign Service officer who served as
a senior adviser in the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific
Affairs. Deming now teaches Japanese studies at the Johns Hopkins School
of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
-
- "One of the most important things the president
has done," Deming told America.gov, is "to reshape the tone of
American foreign policy by emphasizing the fact that we need the cooperation
of other countries and we need to use international institutions, including
the U.N. I think he's done that very effectively by things like speaking
at the U.N. and presiding at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, and
I hope that continues."
-
- Deming said his main concern was the Obama administration's
lagging emphasis on trade. "The Asian region is very interested in
expanding world trade. However, moving forward with free trade agreements
with South Korea and other countries has not been perceived to be a high
priority of this administration. Obama is off to a great start, but words
need to be followed by concrete deeds in opening markets, and I look forward
to that in the years ahead," he said.
-
- On the political front, the Obama administration differs
from that of his predecessor in "where you think conflict comes from
in the world," says Alex Weisiger, assistant professor of political
science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he specializes in decisions
relating to the use of force. Weisiger spoke recently on a panel sponsored
by the University of Pennsylvania's political science department that assessed
Obama's first year in office.
-
- Obama, says Weisiger, takes less of an ideological approach
to problems than did the Bush administration. "He seems more concerned
about allaying concerns of potential opponents" than categorizing
them in groups of good or bad. For example, he "has been more willing
to alleviate Russian concerns ... by pulling the missile shield in Eastern
Europe that the Russians were worried about."
-
- But as commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces, Obama
has also shown mettle in helping the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan
battle extremist insurgencies, the scholar said.
-
- While Obama's recent decision to send an additional 30,000
troops to Afghanistan may have surprised some members of his own party
who oppose further U.S. involvement, according to Weisiger, it was quickly
matched by a European commitment of 7,000 additional troops. This illustrates
Obama's less confrontational and ideological approach to foreign affairs,
he said.
-
- http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2009/
- December/20091201205642esnamfuak0.7319147.html
-
- In the long run, this cooperative tack may strengthen
some of the alliances and goodwill toward the United States that are needed
to maintain global leadership, the scholar said.
-
- But pulling the missile defense from Europe may not be
such a smart idea, says Kim Holmes, former assistant secretary of state
for international organization affairs under President George W. Bush.
Holmes, who is now a vice president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative
policy research group, told America.gov that cancelling the U.S.-sponsored
system of missile defense stationed in Eastern Europe was "a serious
mistake on all levels, including our own security."
-
- Holmes said removing the missile interceptors and radar
"put the United States as well as Europe at risk from a long-range
Iranian [missile] threat" and also "signaled the Russians that
they get concessions like this with nothing in return."
-
- Though Holmes sees Obama's first year of foreign policy
efforts as "overrated," he said, "I'm at least partly happy
about what he did about Afghanistan. I wish he had not taken so long to
make up his mind, and frankly I wish he had provided more troops and I
don't like the idea of a timetable."
-
- In a December 1 speech at the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point, Obama pledged a build-up to around 100,000 U.S. troops for
the conflict in Afghanistan, adding that he would begin bringing them home
in 18 months.
-
- Holmes said signaling a withdrawal may limit Obama's
policy options in Afghanistan. "I think a timetable will make it hard
for him because in a year's time he probably will find [the war is] not
improving as much as he would like and he will have to make even harder
decisions" about whether to continue supporting the Afghans militarily.
-
- Differing with Holmes and offering a European perspective,
Dieter Dettke, a German-born adjunct professor in international relations
at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, commended Obama for
a better working relationship with America's NATO partners, including Germany.
-
- Dettke told America.gov most Germans and Europeans believe
Obama has had a positive influence in world affairs due in large part to
"his cooperative approach to international relations and to other
countries."
-
- This is especially apparent in the war in Afghanistan,
Dettke said. "The Obama administration has wrapped its arms around
the complexity of the war and discussed its intricacies with NATO in a
way the previous administration did not, making it easier for NATO governments
and publics to support the [7,000] troop escalation."
-
- Because of Obama's multilateral approach, Dettke said,
"I'm cautiously optimistic that the allies will come around and chip
in more troops to Afghanistan, at least for the short term."
-
- At the same time, Europeans do not view all foreign affairs
against the backdrop of the war on terror, Dettke emphasized. "We
don't want a clash of civilizations, and Obama understands this as displayed
in his June 4 speech in Cairo reassuring the Muslim world of America's
friendship."
-
- http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/June/
- 20090603171549eaifas0.6576807.html
-
- Obama's positive approach to other countries and emphasis
on multilateralism has "really changed public opinion more favorably
toward America and that is one reason his approval rating is between 88-90
percent in Germany," Dettke said.
-
- Share your thoughts and learn more at the Obama Today
blog http://blogs.america.gov/obama/
-
- This is a product of the Bureau of International Information
Programs, U.S. Department of State. http://www.america.gov
-
|
