Obama's No Drama Foreign Policy Posted by Michael Cohen

Over at Undiplomatic, my old State Department colleague, Charlie Brown has an excellent post about Obama's new foreign policy realism:

For Obama, foreign policy is not a frat party.  Brown is not his “staunch friend.” Medvedev is neither a “soulmate" or “troublesome and unhelpful.” ; and Osama bin Laden is not an “evil-doer.”

Unlike his predecessor, who personalized everything, Obama is keeping his distance, regardless of whether he is dealing with a friend, competitor, or enemy.  He is pursing a businesslike approach to foreign policy, focusing on country-to-country relations, not private relationships.

That is pretty much a textbook example of realism.  He views relationships as a function of American interests, and acts accordingly.

We were so inured by the Bush Presidency that we forget what its like to have adult leadership from the Executive Branch.

But Charlie does raise one point that it is concerning to me as well - a new realist focus may lead to a de-emphasizing of human rights and democracy promotion in US foreign policy. It bears noting that we are 72 days into a new presidential administration and we still have no head of State's Democracy, Human Rights and Labor bureau and even worse, no USAID Administrator.

Obama's foreign policy is a long overdue correction to the notion of unlimited and unchecked America power. As I noted yesterday at Politico, "Obama’s approach to national security shows a more proximate understanding of the realistic limitations of U.S. power than any in recent memory."

But that means the United States needs to think more intelligently about how it wields power; and when it comes to human rights and democracy a good place to start would be the recognition that we need to realize we can only do so much -- and we would be wise to focus our energies on empowering local NGOs and non-state actors to advocate for political change.

I'll have more thoughts on this subject in a few days, but suffice to say meeting this goal is not necessarily that complicated - strengthening the NED, supporting multllateral and regional organizations, like the UN Democracy Fund, building up the MCC so that it makes NGO cooperation an integral part of its assistance package, using bilateral aid to build up governance capacity and ensuring that US diplomacy is protecting civil society actors.

This is not only a realist approach to promoting democracy and human rights; its a smart one as well. I understand and applaud the new realism of Obama's foreign policy (and I use that word loosely, because I think Obama's realism is a bit different from traditional realism). But if you have an Administration that is more judicious in its use of American power; then you need to have advocates who push for them to make the best possible choices.

Comments

[Don Bacon]

You're confusing style with substance and calling it "new realism." Where's the beef?

[JDB]

Bottom line, there is significant change if for no other reason than the simple fact that President Obama is considering foreign governments and not individuals that he has a personal relationship with – as Bush did with Blair, Fox, Putin, Karzai, Musharaff, to name a few—when making policy. That’s a big first step and cannot be overstated.

Again remember that we are in Day 73 of the Obama administration after 8 years (or 2,920) days of the Bush administration. So for everyone who's demanding "CHANGE NOW", I implore you to remain patient. This is government: it's slow and plodding by nature, and neither administration pronouncements nor blogger rage will change that.

Secondly, we’ve already seen significant shifts in national security policy from the Obama administration. The decision to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, the decision to not even call captured suspects “enemy combatants” as a legal end run around the Geneva Conventions and U.S. law, and the drawdown of forces from Iraq (I know, we all want it yesterday, but it ain’t happening) was all done during the first week.

Additionally, there has been a rededication to the Afghanistan mission with forces, resources, and the administration’s attention span (which is a big deal considering that it wasn’t just the military forces that were redirected toward Iraq in 2002, but our diplomatic and ISR assets as well.)

I know some on the far-left hate this increased commitment in Afghanistan and want everyone home yesterday. Again, that would be nice but it ain’t happening. This is the real world with real consequences for actions or inactions, and Democrats/
liberal/progressives—whatever they want to be called-—are no longer the opposition; they’re in power, with all of the burdens and responsibilities that comes with it. The U.S. has security interests in not abandoning commitments – no matter how asinine they were to make at the time– and destabilize countries and a region in the process.

Did I mention that President Obama and Russian President agreed yesterday to discuss renewal of the START II strategic arms reduction treaty, possibly lowering the U.S. and Russia’s total nuclear stockpile to 3,000? There were no arms control successes during the eight years of the Bush administration, even though Bush thought he saw Putin’s soul. In fact, Bush pushed NMD and the RRW, both antagonizing Russia and also arguing for a nuclear stockpile increase. Now we may have a significant accomplishment this June, or around Day 130.

Could there be more? Of course. Should it be more drastic change? I don’t know. Change for change’s sake is never a good idea, especially in terms of the security of the country and our relations with the rest of the world. I would also caution people not to let ideological “perfection” be the enemy of the pragmatic “good” in foreign policy.

[Paul Siegel]

The best way to spread human rights is by example. And Obama is offering a great example.

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