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The End of Arrogance

Obama Brings Toughness and Modesty to Foreign Policy

By Gabor Steingart

Plagued by recession, the world's sole remaining superpower is reinstating realpolitik and seeking to improve relations with other countries, especially rivals China and Russia. But Washington still plans to take a tough approach toward the Taliban and al-Qaida, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

If there is one thing that the key players in Democratic and Republican foreign policy have in common, it is the rings under the eyes of the respective secretaries of state. Madeleine Albright wore them like badges of honor, and so did Condoleezza Rice. With the transfer of the State Department's official Air Force Boeing 757, the rings are now Hillary Clinton's.

After only a month in office, Clinton already looks exhausted. She has just returned from Japan and China, and now she is on her way to Geneva to meet with the Russian foreign minister. But her current trip takes her to the Middle East first, where, as she says flatly, "I'm looking for results."

Before her departure from Washington, Clinton is scheduled to give a talk on human rights. The US government's annual report on human rights, all 100 pages of it, is sitting on her desk. It contains a plethora of demands, wishes and potential appeals to the Chinese and Russians, and to the Pakistanis, Somalis, Syrians and a whole list of the world's human rights rogues.

Clinton is now in charge of Washington's foreign policy and moral standing around the world. Her break with the previous administration is evident in the things she doesn't say. Her goal is not to admonish or lecture. She names only one country that she expects to make a significantly strong effort when it comes to human rights: her own. America, she says, must live up to its ideals from now on, and it must lead the way and set an example. The United States hasn't seen this much self-critique in a long time.

President Barack Obama had set the new tone on the previous evening. "The United States of America does not torture. We can make that commitment here tonight," he said solemnly in his much-anticipated address to a joint session of Congress in Washington.

America is returning to realpolitik. America is a democracy, but exporting that principle to remote parts of the world is no longer its primary goal. The years of arrogance are over. In his speech last Tuesday, Obama invoked "a new era of engagement and diplomacy" and avoided the term "war on terror." As former President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "the only way to have a friend is to be one."

The United States is currently taking a new measure of the world and redefining its own interests. The contours of an Obama foreign policy are taking shape -- one that seeks to combine toughness with an easing of tensions. This cannot be to everyone's liking.

"Soft power" means talking, negotiating, wooing and threatening. Military action is not taken off the table, but it is seen as a last resort. The primary goal is to ease tensions, if possible, but a more aggressive approach can be applied if necessary.

Obama realizes that the world doesn't consist of good and evil, but of countries with varying interests and values. Intelligent foreign policy attempts to create a balance.

However, the old power structure in Washington is finding this new attitude hard to accept. Whenever senior US military officials appear in public today, it seems as if they had passed through a reeducation camp. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, can hardly hide his anxiety. "The dangers are real and serious," he says, defiantly but with an edge to his voice. His uniform, covered with military decorations, seems to tighten as he speaks. Then he adds that the military, of course, is "not the answer to all problems."

It is a realization his counterparts in Europe, China and Russia made long ago.

The US's strategic rivals are particularly affected by the new administration's course correction. Good relations with China are "indispensable," Clinton said on her way to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing. Human rights are important, of course, she said, but then added a triple disclaimer: In light of the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises, she said, unfettered cooperation is more important than ever. "We are pressing the button labeled 'New Beginning,'" Vice President Joe Biden said, referring to Moscow.

Clinton's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva this week will be an opportunity to apply the new strategy. Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state and now an advisor to Clinton, has developed a concept that is likely to interest Moscow.

The United States wants to offer Russia support in its efforts to become integrated into the economic order of the West. There is talk of the lifting of trade barriers, and it may be possible to speed up Russia's bid for membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), an important goal for the government in Moscow.

It is already clear that the Obama administration is not placing very much emphasis on the planned missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. In fact, it even wants to resume negotiations over disarmament of both nuclear and conventional weapons systems, the idea being that Moscow would then be more willing to help the United States prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. America would be better off "including Russia instead of excluding or containing it," Talbott advises.

Russia is receptive to such overtures. Even Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has stopped his notorious rants against the United States, NATO or the West in general.

The economic crisis has condemned the powerful in Russia's natural resource empire to humility. The government budget is based on an oil price of $41 a barrel. This causes problems for the government and social hardships for millions of people. GDP is declining and inflation is currently at 13 percent.

The US course correction is not the product of some momentary whim, and Obama is no do-gooder. The unfavorable reality demands that Washington seek a security partnership with Russia, a reliable alliance with China and at least some regulation of its adverse relations with Iran and North Korea:

• America can no longer afford to continue its aggressive foreign policy. The occupation of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan have already consumed at least $1 trillion (€800 billion). Military experts at the Pentagon say the army is "overstretched" by lengthy deployments in multiple locations.

• The recruitment of new soldiers -- after more than 4,900 dead -- has ground to a halt. For the first time since the Vietnam War, an increasingly war-weary military sees itself forced to recruit immigrants with only limited residence permits and without US passports to maintain its combat strength. Those who survive their tour of duty qualify for US citizenship.

• The economic crisis requires closer cooperation around the globe. The various US economic stimulus packages can only work if the other major economies -- Japan, China, Russia and Germany -- follow suit.

Obama knows who is useful in times of crisis. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, in danger of being voted out of office, was the first foreign leader to be invited to the White House. The world's largest and second-largest economies must cooperate more closely, Obama said.

Of course, this is about money, not just gestures. The Obama administration is paying for its bailout packages for banks and the auto industry, as well as the recent economic stimulus program, exclusively with borrowed funds. For want of domestic savings, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is now collecting the money the government needs abroad.

In the first three months of 2008, the US Treasury Department issued treasury bills in global financial markets worth $569 billion (€455 billion). In the first quarter of 2009, the government is expected to borrow another $493 billion (€394 billion). The biggest buyers have been the Japanese and the Chinese.