On November 10, 2008, the letters section of the International Herald Tribune
carried the following comments by a reader from Ottawa called Mahmood Elahi:
"With Obama in the White House, we are now all Americans." The identification
of so many around the world with Americans as a result of Barack Obama's rise
to the helm has raised the prospects of a United States that is more liked than
hated.
This would reverse a decades-long fall in the country's international image.
From being perceived as the world's bully and biggest threat to peace during
the George W Bush era, the US
under Obama is passing through a honeymoon with world public opinion that has
lasting promise.
According to the latest global poll conducted by the Program on International
Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, which questioned 13,575 people
in 20 countries including in Central America in 10 weeks, the US's positive
rating rose five points, to 40%, while negatives dipped four points to 43%.
In a similar poll a year ago, respondents had leaned towards China and Russia,
saying that they had a more positive influence in the world than the US. But
the trends are now reversed, with China being rated negatively by 40% (up by
seven points from 2008), compared to 39% who viewed it positively (down by six
points).
People carrying a negative impression of Russia rose to 42% (up by eight points
from 2008), while those with a positive view of it fell five points to just
30%.
That there is an "Obama effect" on these shifts in global perception is
undoubted. The new American president has promised to listen more and lecture
less, to be humble rather than arrogant, and to "work alongside" people in
developing countries rather than above them. This has been music to the world's
ears.
The Obama administration's conciliatory opening gestures towards Iran, Russia,
Cuba and even North Korea have changed the way the US was dreaded and
despised in many corners of the planet. That the US can be a force for good was
always a theoretical possibility, but to see some of that potentially coming
alive in the language and policy of the Obama administration is heartening.
Some realist strategic thinkers are now ironically proposing that what is
heartening to the publics of the world is actually a cause for concern to their
governments. An Australian scholar of Chinese origin, John Lee, wrote recently
that Obama presented a challenge to China's foreign policy because he "seeks to
continue protecting and extending America's leadership role in the world -
which Beijing believes to be to its detriment".
Claiming that "Beijing is wary of attractive presidents who may replenish the
reserves of US leadership and influence in the world", Lee said that Obama had
turned the US around and was positioning it as the most popular great power.
Lee also makes an important strategic observation that under Bush, "America
became distracted by war", enabling China to "make tremendous gains in Asia".
Obama, on the other hand, is close to declaring a formal end to the so-called
"war on terror".
Influential New York Times columnist Roger Cohen has announced that for Obama,
"the war on terror is over, terminated", leaving only a subsidiary task of
defeating some terrorist organizations.
Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's envoy to Pakistan and
Afghanistan, and General James Jones, the new US national security adviser,
both contributed to a new study recommending that Washington declare a formal
end to Bush's "war on terror" and negotiate with "moderate" Taliban members who
are willing to leave the Islamist extremists and al-Qaeda.
While Lee's contention that China should be shivering from Obama's repudiation
of the "war on terror" might be debated, it does signal that the US is making
all the right moves to secure a global leadership role. It is therefore no
wonder that the American contingent at the 45th Munich Security Conference last
week was the most looked up to.
When US Vice President Joseph Biden stepped onto the stage, an audience
comprising some 350 top politicians and security experts from more than 50
countries gave a resounding reception. According to the German newspaper Der
Spiegel, Biden reportedly stole the show and was the "star guest".
If a reconfirmation is needed that Obama has built up unprecedented "soft
power" for the US, one could analyze the fallout from his prescribed pay caps
for the bosses of corporations receiving state bailouts. Within a week of
Obama's famous remark decrying the fact that self-indulgent bonuses for chief
executive officers (CEOs) could be dependent on government lifelines as
"shameful", European leaders emulated him by reining in their CEOs and trading
room dealers.
A cue was taken from Obama, and then had enough attraction to sweep across
Europe. A director of MM&K, an executive compensation consultancy based in
London, captured the essence of this effect very precisely to the International
Herald Tribune: "I think Barack Obama has picked up on the mood of the world in
what he says about greed."
For the moment at least, Obama has his finger on the popular pulse, not only in
the US but overseas. What he has achieved in his few weeks in office is enough
to make the world believe that the US has leadership qualities and should be
trusted with them. What remains to be done is for him to translate rhetoric
into more diplomatic action.
Should Washington succeed in entering into a mutually satisfactory agreement
with Moscow about reducing their unfeasibly large nuclear arsenals, it will be
a step in the right direction for the grand objective of universal nuclear
disarmament.
Should Washington succeed in winding down its colony of military bases across
the world, it would send a positive message that US foreign relations will no
longer be conducted with guns pointed at the heads of other governments.
The deteriorating economic crisis in the Western world is a blessing in
disguise if it can speed up the closure of the unnecessary American bases in
far-flung areas of the world that only build up resentment and anger against
it. For starters, many of the bases acquired in the name of the "war on terror"
have nothing to do with existing threats in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and can
be exited without any strategic loss.
A more ambitious reform that Obama could spearhead to cement the US's global
leadership is to build a new "Bretton Woods II" system to regulate
international finance. While the Group of 20 summit in November 2008 in
Washington was labelled by the media "Bretton Woods II", the lackadaisical and
uninspiring role played by the George W Bush administration meant that the
conference did not live up to the tag.
Obama's contribution to a new world economy that is ordered not on dogmatic
neo-liberalism but on principles of corporate transparency and accountability
would be a lasting one, if he attempts it.
The saying that the world catches a cold when Washington sneezes is playing out
all too worryingly in the current economic meltdown. What Obama has brought to
the stage is a chance that the world catches a healthier wind when Washington
takes a deep breath.
Sreeram Chaulia is a researcher on international affairs at the Maxwell
School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in Syracuse, New York.
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