Obama Foreign Policy and Rebuilding America's Standing in the World

President-elect Barack Obama on Monday is announcing a foreign policy and national security team that includes Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Dozens of issues will face Obama and Clinton and the team, but these concerns all fall under the umbrella of Obama's campaign pledge "to restore America's standing in the world."

Obama perceives, as do a majority of citizens, that America's standing in the world has suffered during the eight years under President Bush. The foreign policy and national security team under Bush was prone to "go it alone" without considering allies, exemplified by the 2003 invasion that launched the Iraq War.

Bush spoke of a "war on terror" and the media adopted the phrase. However, wars are fought against nations, not terrorists. Terrorists need to be contained and disarmed; they can't be blasted away in warfare.

Here are three steps, examples among many, that Obama can take with his foreign policy and national security team to restore America's standing in the world:

(1) Strengthen alliances.

If we feel George W. Bush became unpopular in the United States, consider the disdain with which he is regarded in foreign nations, especially in Europe. Citizens and leaders in most foreign nations joined Obama in 2001 and 2002 in opposing the Iraq War invasion, and this was not one of those occasions in which the Europeans were jelly-kneed and avoiding reality. They simply perceived that the United States was overly aggressive, rushing to war rather than reserving war as the final option. Obama already is popular overseas, and he can quickly capitalize to rebuild alliances. This is but one example in which the key to foreign policy is foreign relations.

(2) Negotiate with enemies.

Obama, with Secretary of State Clinton as the lead emissary, also won't hesitate to speak with enemies. The Bush philosophy of refusing to speak with leaders of the "axis of evil" and so forth was not only unrealistic, but counterproductive. Did not John F. Kennedy meet with the Soviet Union's Nikita Khrushchev during the peak of the Cold War? Did not Richard M. Nixon travel to China when many thought this was unthinkable?

(3) Build a better world.

To "build a better world," many Americans may consider this to be a naive and dreamy aspect of foreign policy and national security. However, one of the best ways to protect our own world interests is to show the best face of the United States, to reinforce that Americans are a peaceful people who engage in war only as a last resort. World hunger and poverty should not be considered as hopelessly intractable problems caused by foreign cultures. Rampant diseases such as malaria and AIDS are not beyond solutions. The concept of "foreign aid" may seem beyond our reach in America when we are looking at $10 trillion in budget debt, a $700 billion Wall Street bailout and up to another $700 billion for a domestic economic stimulus package. Still, foreign aid can bring big dividends at a comparatively modest (although not painless) price. An intensive effort to "build a better world" won't disarm all enemies, but it will disarm some. Besides, it's the right thing to do. That is not naive and dreamy.

SOURCES

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