Obama strategy calls for peace through deference
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
Geostrategy-Direct.com
The United States will no longer seek to lead the world toward a better future but will defer to rising powers and international organizations in its relations abroad, according to a senior State Dept. official.
Deputy Secretary James Steinberg also said in a speech last week at the National Defense University that subordinating American power will not mean abandoning U.S. leadership.
“Some might dispute this assertion and contend that the redistribution of power and influence is inherently threatening to the United States,” Steinberg said. Realist foreign policy advocates regard any challenge to U.S. primacy as a threat, and consider other nations’ gains as costing the United States, Steinberg said.
Steinberg said he also disagrees with those who argue that because rising powers like China, India and Brazil are not longtime allies that the United States should maintain its pre-eminence.
“But in my view, such thinking is counterproductive and fundamentally fails to understand the implications of the other trends….,” Steinberg said.
Steinberg said the main test of global leadership will be how nations act to deal with transnational threats like nuclear proliferation, armed conflict, climate change, terrorism, biological hazards and poverty.
“For these urgent concerns, the rise of others can be a positive- sum game,” he said. “This will require concerted efforts both to listen more carefully to the perspectives of potential partners and to find creative solutions, while retaining a firm commitment to our interests.”
For the Obama administration, “if we approach rising powers as inherent threats and develop our policy accordingly, a negative outcome is certain,” Steinberg said.
The comments sum up the new approach to world affairs under President Obama that will shift away from viewing the United States as the superpower capable of leading the world toward democracy and free markets.
Instead, the United States will now seek to be deferential to the views of other states, whether they are communist China or Islamist Iran.
A defense official speaking on background stated recently the combination of the global financial crisis, the rise of China and other states and the new Democrat administration is an indication that the new U.S. policy is “post-containment.”