This is a repost from the summer, when I guest blogged on Josh Craft's Political Dissonance. Its increased relevance is rather obvious, and the only significant revision would be to add the global financial crisis to the third bullet, and reference the Mumbai attacks in the crafting of an effective policy towards Pakistan.
Were Senator Barack Obama successful in ending our long national nightmare and claiming the office of the presidency, the magnitude of foreign policy issues before him on day one will appear audacious – yet unfortunately, no amount of nascent-inspired hope will be enough to meet the country and the world’s expectations during his first 100 or 1000 days in office. As such, an Obama Administration must arm itself with the appropriate policy-making instruments and personnel to sift through the wreckage of the Bush Administration and revamp the strategic, political and humanitarian objectives of American foreign policy. For many within the Obama team and certainly amongst its supporters on the left, the entire global landscape may seem in flames. Atop the list of exigent matters surely will be:
• Assessing the extent of political reconciliation in Iraq and the threat of sustained violence from the most dangerous of the discontent and, subsequently, evaluating the impact of a gradual withdrawal on these dynamics;
• Comprehending the ever-shifting politics in Pakistan and its impact on the resurgence of the Taliban, the stability of the Karzai government, and the hunt for al-Qaeda;
• Ascertaining Israel and Iran’s regional objectives vis-à-vis their troubling standoff, and probing for windows of opportunity for highly touted but routinely disappointing Palestinian-Israeli, Syrian-Israeli, Lebanese-Israeli negotiations and possible US-Iranian talks;
• Coping with global turmoil induced by the rise of food and energy prices and core inflation and the impact of such turbulence on the stability of governments around the world; and
• Leading the international response to humanitarian and political crises in Burma, Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe and other international hotspots that may flare up over the next 6 months.
It will be hard to resist temptations to try to solve everything at once. While President Obama should immediately commence an international tour of world capitals to assure world leaders of the “change” in substance and style of his Administration’s foreign policy, he must also emphasize to these leaders and their people that climbing out of the deep ditch dug by his predecessor will take time. Such a message will accordingly temper unachievable expectations. It will also give the new president the opportunity to emphasize his commitment to reshaping the core values and tactics of American foreign policy in a manner consistent with the idealism of the country’s past and the responsibility inherent in the country’s present and future standing in the world.
Posts
