Obama’s Diplomacy Gap
- 11.05.2007 - 2:25 PMBarack Obama claims to understand uniquely how the world’s perceptions of the United States have changed in recent years. For starters, Obama lived in Indonesia from the ages of six to ten, making him the only presidential candidate to have spent any substantial period of time in the Muslim world. Moreover, as he’s eager to tell us, Obama is deeply connected with other cultures, with a grandmother living in Kenya, a half-Indonesian sister, and a Chinese-Canadian brother-in-law. In this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, James Traub explores how Obama’s biography has influenced his vision for American foreign policy:
[Obama] returns again and again to the question of what America means to the rest of the world…. Obama would like to restore the era when people in capitals all over the world could go to the local American cultural center to read books and magazines, the way he could in Jakarta—though now he would add English lessons and vocational training, and “stories of America’s Muslims and the strength they add to our country.”
Obama is correct that the United States should more aggressively reach out to Muslim publics. However, restoring America’s reputation will require more than emphasizing those values that Americans share with the Muslim world—which the presence of a strong, domestic Muslim-American community certainly symbolizes. Indeed, the true challenge of public diplomacy lies in frankly addressing those issues on which the United States and the Muslim world differ, including the war in Iraq, the fight against Islamist terrorist groups, support for Israel, and the drive to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear capabilities.
In explaining the U.S.’s interest on these critical issues, Obama is ill-prepared. He prides himself on having opposed the Iraq war since 2002, and would likely reinforce the perception of many in the Muslim world that the war was the product of “exaggerated fears.”
Obama further appears unsuited to explaining the U.S.-Israel relationship, which he has supported publicly. He is advised by former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who has defended the Walt-Mearsheimer thesis that this relationship is the product of Jewish pressure, not strategic interest—a theory that has contributed to the proliferation of popular anti-Semitism on the “Arab street.” Indeed, Brzezinski is a huge liability if Obama hopes to convince Americans of his ability to sell American foreign policy. Brzezinski recently signed a letter demanding dialogue with Hamas, a move that would turn our backs on the one Arab constituency still nominally receptive to American aims—liberal Arabs. Of course, this letter was consistent with Obama’s own belief that the U.S. should talk with Iran’s leaders—a move that similarly would alienate Iran’s younger generation, widely thought to be liberal and pro-American.
If Obama hopes to prove that his version of “soft power” is truly powerful, he must explain how he will broaden America’s appeal among opponents in the Middle East without alienating allies. Distributing State Department-approved copies of Muhammad Ali’s biography and providing free English lessons simply won’t cut it.
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November 5th, 2007 at 3:43 PM
While the policy of the PRESENT US government differs with many in the Muslim world regarding the war in Iraq, there is much less difference between the citizens of the US and the Muslim world. Presumably if an Obama administration replaced the Bush administration, the policy of the US government would also then become much closer to the wishes of many in the Muslim world.
November 5th, 2007 at 4:28 PM
“…there is much less difference between the citizens of the US and the Muslim world.”
That is simply not accurate. Much of the Muslim world is contemptuous of the modern world. It is racist, anti-women, anti-Semitic, luddite, anti-intellectual, and dedicated to the domination, if not outright eradication of the “infidels.” Also, far too many Muslims enjoy employing the victim card and indulging in self-pity and a sense of entitlement. They have listened too closely to the irrational utterings of the late Edward Said and other leftist “elites” claiming that Muslims have been victimized by the West. George W. Bush deserves blame for a number of mistakes. However, the conflict between the Islamic radicals and Western Civilization is not one of them.
November 5th, 2007 at 10:14 PM
“…Walt-Mearsheimer thesis that this relationship is the product of Jewish pressure, not strategic interest”
The problem with the Walt-Meashimer thesis isn’t the focus on Jewish pressure. No one can argue that AIPAC is effective, much in the same way no one can argue that the Cuban lobby is effective. Nor is it anti-semitic to argue that there are strategic aims that are not addressed/ are adversely affected by the U.S. relationship with Israel. There is room for legitimate debate on the topic.
The problem with the Walt-Meashimer argument is that it is poor political science - tinged with Old World antisemitic prejudices. Their definition of “The Lobby” is so expansive as to include everyone who disagrees with them while conjuring the bugaboo of the Jewish Conspiracy. Obama’s inexperience in foreign affairs (not all that much more than W, and look how that turned out) rather than his support by Brzezinski, is the larger issue.
November 6th, 2007 at 2:57 PM
The problem with Obama’s wide grasp of the pov of Asia, Africa and Arabia is his grasp of the American pov.
It is the old question: if I am not for myself, who will be?
Can we afford a president whose qualifications are his sympathy with the world’s problems, rather than America’s interests and sensitivities?
November 6th, 2007 at 4:34 PM
Mr. Thomson, my comment that there is much less difference between the citizens of the US and the Muslim world referred directly to the war in in Iraq, not to anything else.
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:31 AM
Brzezinski is a huge liability if Obama hopes to convince Americans of his ability to sell American foreign policy.
MANY Americans have grown sick of “American foreign policy”, particularly towards wasting huge amounts of money, weapons, and good will on Israel, while Israel conducts what cannot honestly be called anything but terror campaigns. That includes Jews like me.