2008: Daily Star On Biden Pick
August 28th, 2008 by Matt
Lebanon’s Daily Star likes Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as his running mate, not only for his “hands-on experience” in the Middle East, but also because they believe he is “unlikely to let the region’s autocrats get a free ride” while avoiding the “recklessness” of the Bush administration’s attempts to do the same.
The New America Foundation sponsored an event yesterday at the DNC titled, “Can The Next President Make the Middle East Irrelevant?” featuring an all-star lineup of speakers and panelists including John Kerry, Joschka Fischer, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Daniel Levy, and Rob Malley, among others. I’ll try to link to a transcript or video when they put one up.
Posted in Election 08, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Holbrooke On Democracy Promotion In Foreign Affairs
August 27th, 2008 by Matt
In a piece in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, Richard Holbrooke takes a look at the “daunting agenda” facing America’s next president, evaluating the McCain and Obama platforms in the process. Holbrooke focuses on a critical five-country arc where Bush administration policies have failed, requiring immediate attention from the new administration–Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Holbrooke laments (among other things) inconsistent democracy promotion policies in this region, and indeed recommends a major modification of the very idea of democracy promotion. Money quote:
“Bush did the dream of democracy a huge disservice by linking it to the assertion of U.S. military power. Pressuring other countries to adopt the superficial aspects of a complex and subtle system of governance is simply not the route to follow in promoting American values or security interests. Yet the goal is correct and should not be abandoned — only presented in a style and a tone far more sensitive to how it is perceived in other lands.”
His solution:
“focus more on human rights (a phrase curiously absent from the Bush lexicon) and basic human needs while still encouraging the development of democratic forms of government, accompanied by the evolution of a pluralist political culture, the rule of law, and improvements in material conditions, especially through job creation. If there is progress in these areas, democracy will follow, in ways that countries will determine for themselves — with U.S. encouragement.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Election 08, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Biden’s Liberal Realism
August 26th, 2008 by Matt
Now that Barack Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as his VP has settled, several analysts have taken a look at Biden’s foreign policy experience with the apparent assumption that he might have an influence on a potential Obama administration’s international behavior, as Dick Cheney asserted his influence in the Bush administration.
Blake Hounshell likes Biden’s “lack of ideology”, arguing that he doesn’t fit either the realist (pro-intervention in Darfur) or the “liberal hawk” stereotypes, with his disdain for “sweeping rhetoric…about bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq”.
Writing for al-Jazeera, Marwan Bishara agrees, calling Biden both a foreign policy liberal and a realist who “doesn’t believe in promoting democracy in the world when it conflicts with US national interests.”
Ilan Goldenberg takes issue with a WaPo op-ed by Michael Rubin critical of Biden’s policies on Iran.
CFR has a quick run-down of some more analysis from the past few days.
Posted in Election 08, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Warning: This Post Not About Potential Vice Presidents
August 22nd, 2008 by Matt
Yesterday on the New York Times “Campaign Stops” blog, Thomas Donnelly and Rachel Kleinfeld took stock of where the Iraq debate sits as we move from veep-stakes hubbub to convention hoopla over the next couple weeks. Donnelly argues that McCain presents the clearer, more sensible and more courageous approach to Iraq, while Kleinfeld presents a strong counterpoint in favor of Obama’s plan. Check it out if the non-stop veep frenzy is wearing thin.
Posted in Election 08, Iraq, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Democrats on Democracy
August 18th, 2008 by Matt
The Democratic National Committee’s party platform committee released its product a little while back, and since one of the (seven) pillars of the foreign policy section is entitled, “Advancing Democracy, Development, and Human Rights”, I’m passing the link along here (hat tip: Washington Note) for those who wish to take a look (will do the same with the new GOP platform upon its release). The money subsection discusses the party’s commitment to “build democratic institutions” abroad, through a vision that goes “beyond the ballot box” and is based on the guiding principles that “democracy cannot be imposed by force from the outside; it must be nurtured with moderates on the inside”.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Election 08, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
POMED Notes: “Scripting America’s Priorities”
August 15th, 2008 by Adam
Today, the New America Foundation hosted a discussion on the contents of the 2008 Democratic Party Platform. Panelists included Susan Rice, Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Barack Obama, Karen Kornbluh, Principal Author of the Democratic Party Platform, Steve Coll, President & CEO of the New America Foundation, and Maya MacGuineas, Director of the Fiscal Policy Program at the New America Foundation. Steve Clemons, Director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation moderated the discussion.
For POMED’s full notes on the discussion, click here.
Posted in DC Event Notes, Election 08, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Zakaria On Bush’s Lessons For McCain And Obama
August 14th, 2008 by Matt
In a Newsweek essay, Fareed Zakaria advises John McCain and Barack Obama not to reflexively reverse all of the Bush administration’s foreign policy actions. Zakaria makes the argument that Bush’s second-term foreign policy has frequently been “sensible” and “mainstream”, compared with his first-term foreign policy behavior, and thus neither candidate should dismiss it out-of-hand. Zakaria cites Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and the Mideast peace process as areas where Bush policy is now “less vulnerable to attack” due to shifts and evolutions in the correct direction. Zakaria addresses Bush’s “freedom agenda”, but only in relation to Africa, where he decries the administration for implementing an old Middle East style protocol of propping up dictators only because they have “learned to mouth the language of the global War on Terror”. Zakaria also offers areas where the new president should strongly attempt to distance himself from the Bush administration, including with regard to actions that have given much of the world the impression that the U.S. is anti-Muslim.
Posted in Election 08, US foreign policy, US politics | 1 Comment »
2008: Lebanese Sentiments On Obama
August 8th, 2008 by Matt
For The Daily Star, Rozina Ali heads into the streets of Beirut to talk to Lebanese about their evolving opinions of Barack Obama’s candidacy. While many of the interviewees still view Obama as an individual with potential to bring real change to the Middle East, Ali perceives a shifting mindset among many Lebanese who have become more circumspect about Obama in light of his political moves toward the center after securing his primary victory. His comments regarding an “undivided” Jerusalem in a speech before AIPAC proved especially unnerving for many of the interviewees.
Posted in Election 08, Lebanon, Public Opinion, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Clemons On The Resignation Of Obama’s Muslim Outreach Coordinator
August 6th, 2008 by Matt
Steve Clemons, aggravated by the Obama campaign’s decision to let their Muslim outreach coordinator resign over “questions about his ‘involvement’ in an Islamic investment fund and various Islamic groups” calls on Obama to “make a statement loudly, clearly, and with passion that he embraces Muslims as much as any other Americans of Christian, Buddhist, Jewish or other religious persuasions.” Clemons is unimpressed by Obama’s treatment of Muslims throughout the campaign, and “saddened” by Obama’s decision to let Mazen Azbahi step down because eight years ago he “served on a board ‘for a few weeks’ that included a Muslim fundamentalist imam from Illinois.”
Posted in Election 08, US politics | Comment »
2008: Will Obama Really Withdraw?
August 6th, 2008 by Matt
Another item to pass along from last week:
RealClearPolitics published a piece by Gregory Scoblete questioning the likelihood that Barack Obama will abide by his promises to withdraw from Iraq. Scoblete calls Obama’s Iraq position an “untenable straddle–disavowing the war while simultaneously reaffirming the panoply of U.S. interests in the region that have made leaving Iraq seem so vexing.” Scoblete says the only way Obama could deliver on his pledge would be to sketch out a new strategic compact with the Middle East which would break cleanly from recent norms. Scoblete suggests Obama could do this in part by lifting some of President Bush’s rhetoric circa 2002 decrying authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and the connection between the hopeless political and economic conditions they create and the consequent decision to resort to terrorism made by many young men. Presumably Obama would seek a method different from the Bush adminstration to combat these conditions.
Posted in Election 08, Iraq, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Handling Turkey’s Crisis And Our Addiction to Middle East Oil
August 5th, 2008 by Matt
A couple unrelated posts to pass along from the folks over at The Washington Note:
Last Thursday, one day after Turkey’s Constitutional Court narrowly decided against throwing out the moderate Islamic ruling AKP party, Ben Katcher criticized the State Department’s neutral policy position on the issue, saying it “undercut the administration’s policy of promoting democracy in the Middle East”. Katcher also posed an important question yet to be directly addressed by either candidate–whether the U.S. should seek to isolate, marginalize, or engage moderate Islamist parties like AKP as part of our efforts to promote democracy in the region.
Today, Steve Clemons criticizes both McCain and Obama for proposing “short-term, knee-jerk responses” to the current energy policy dilemma. Clemons implores both candidates to “work harder at thinking through what the characteristics of a new equilibrium in the Middle East and globally might look like”, so they are as prepared as possible to create a more stable, durable situation upon taking office.
Posted in Election 08, Islam and Democracy, Oil, Political Islam, Secularism, Turkey, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Goldgeier On The League of Democracies, And Why 2008 Is Different From 1992
August 5th, 2008 by Matt
Last week Jim Goldgeier had a piece up at political science blog The Monkey Cage that’s well worth highlighting here. Goldgeier, drawing in part from his forthcoming book co-written with Derek Chollet, takes a look at why democracy promotion, and specifically John McCain’s idea for a League of Democracies, has not gained much traction so far in this election cycle. Goldgeier argues that in 1991-92, there was an unusual convergence of international relations theory (specifically the Democratic Peace theory), campaign politics, and global trends toward democracy that is mostly absent today. Thus, there is little real political payoff for McCain’s idea. Goldgeier also suggests that although it might be handy to have a tool through which democratic nations can circumvent the veto power of major autocracies at the UN, the notion that all or even most democracies share enough of the same foreign policy goals to make the tool useful is highly dubious.
Posted in Concert of Democracies, Democracy Promotion, Election 08, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Editorials Criticize Obama on Iraq
July 18th, 2008 by Matt
First, the Washington Post takes aim, decrying Obama’s “foolish consistency” on a timetable for withdrawal, and predicting that it will be extremely difficult to achieve in the manner Obama presents it. The Post also criticizes Obama’s “irrational” and “indifferent” behavior toward the grander strategic ramifications of the war, reiterating how Iraq is “vital” to U.S. security interests, as it sits at the “strategic center” of the Middle East on “some of the world’s largest oil reserves”. Matt Yglesias sarcastically rebuts the notion that we should care about Iraq because of oil strategy:
“Oops, did I say democracy promotion? I meant to say that Iraq has a lot of oil so we need to try to micromanage its future. And yet it’s precisely this impulse — the belief that we desperately need to retain “influence” in oil-possessing parts of the world that got us into the corrupt bargain with the Arab autocracies that produced the conditions under which al-Qaeda arose and began targeting us. Remember when Iraq was supposed to be part of a drive for reform that changed that dynamic? Oh for the heady days of the Arab spring.”
Also, The Wall Street Journal rips Obama’s “judgment” on the surge.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Election 08, Iraq, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Iraqis Offer Views On Obama
July 17th, 2008 by Matt
Sabrina Tavernise and Richard Oppel, Jr. report for The New York Times on the complicated sentiments expressed by 18 Iraqis informally polled on their feelings toward Barack Obama in advance of his upcoming visit. Although several of those asked say they feel a certain closeness and identifiability with Obama as a person, some (mostly in the Iraqi government or military) express apprehension over his plan to withdraw American forces should he be elected president.
Posted in Election 08, Iraq, Public Opinion, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Dennis Ross Joining Obama on Mideast Trip
July 17th, 2008 by Matt
Time magazine’s Massimo Calabresi reports on Barack Obama’s choice to have Dennis Ross accompany him on his Middle East trip, what Ross’ presence might mean to Arab and Israeli observers, and whether or not Ross might have a future role on Obama’s negotiating team for the Arab-Israeli peace process.
Posted in Election 08, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Palestine, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Separating Terrorism From Islamic Extremism
July 17th, 2008 by Matt
Over at TAPPED, Ezra Klein homed in on a particular passage on Islamic extremism in Barack Obama’s interview with Fareed Zakaria that Klein says shows a distinct difference between McCain and Obama on this issue:
“One of the clear distinctions between the Left’s approach to terrorism and the Right’s approach to terrorism is that the Left wants to limit the scope of the conflict, while the Right wants to expand it. So though it was only al Qaeda who attacked us on 9/11, Romney and Giuliani and McCain and plenty of their colleagues want to zoom out from al Qaeda to terrorism, and from terrorism to Islamic extremism. Rather than this being an effort to hunt down al Qaeda, it becomes a war to hunt down al Qaeda, destroy Hezbollah, eradicate Hamas, overthrow Saddam Hussein, change the regime in Tehran, crush the Muslim Brotherhood, and confront Syria, and whatever else Bill Kristol thought of while eating his Cheerios that week.”
Posted in Election 08, Hamas, Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood, Terrorism, US foreign policy, US politics, al-Qaeda | Comment »
2008: McCain on Afghanistan
July 16th, 2008 by Matt
Shortly after Barack Obama’s speech yesterday, John McCain spoke on Iraq and Afghanistan as well, focusing mainly on the latter. McCain’s speech, being smaller in scope, offered more detail on the military and counterinsurgency tactics necessary to win the war, but also found some common ground with Obama on encouraging democratic development through strengthening institutions, the rule of law, the economy, and cutting down on the drug trade. McCain would employ “specific governance and development benchmarks”, agreed upon with the Afghan government, to track success. McCain also linked Afghanistan’s success with Pakistan, promising to help “empower the new civilian government of Pakistan to defeat radicalism with greater support for development, health, and education.”
Matt Yglesias wonders about McCain’s ability to engender the international cooperation he is hoping for in Afghanistan. Ed Morrissey trusts McCain’s ability to win a counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan over Obama’s.
Posted in Afghanistan, Election 08, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: Obama’s Foreign Policy Speech
July 16th, 2008 by Matt
A few POMED-relevant items from Barack Obama’s foreign policy speech yesterday. First, he defines success in Iraq–downplaying the likelihood of “flawless democracy” in favor of “a government that is taking responsibility for its future - a government that prevents sectarian conflict, and ensures that the al Qaeda threat which has been beaten back by our troops does not reemerge.” He goes on to say that victory will be near when Iraqis can responsibly “reach the political accommodation necessary for long-term stability.” The speech and Obama’s recent op-ed on Iraq provide details of his strategy for reaching such a point.
Obama links together the success of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and says he will focus on “training Afghan security forces and supporting an Afghan judiciary” while simultaneously building up the economy and cracking down on narco-trafficking. Elaborating on how to improve the security situation in the tribal areas between the two countries, Obama argues, “we must offer more than a blank check to a General who has lost the confidence of his people. It’s time to strengthen stability by standing up for the aspirations of the Pakistani people.” Only a “strong Pakistani democracy” can permanently secure the region.
Moving the topic to his plan for energy independence, Obama laments the rising price of oil and how it “takes leverage away from America and shifts it to dictators” in the Middle East and elsewhere. He also mentions doubling U.S. foreign assistance to $50 billion by 2012, which presumably would include a few bucks to support democracy and governance in weak and failing states.
Tim Fernholz thought Obama did well, especially on Iraq. Abe Greenwald criticizes Obama on Pakistan.
Posted in Election 08, Iraq, Pakistan, US foreign policy, US politics | 1 Comment »
2008: Obama Op-Ed Reaction
July 15th, 2008 by Matt
As you would expect, Barack Obama’s Iraq op-ed in The New York Times yesterday resulted in a good amount of chatter from the blogosphere. Here’s a sampling of a few posts, ranging from supportive to full-blown enraged.
At Tapped, Tim Fernholz makes the argument that despite all the “flip-flopping” talk, Obama actually has the clearer plan of the two candidates. Despite the disproportionate (negative) media attention Obama is receiving, it’s McCain who has an “unclear strategy for staying in Iraq indefinitely”. Fernholz is mostly responding to John Judis, who thinks the media has a point about Obama’s flip-flop. Michael Cohen’s conclusion at Democracy Arsenal is that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds–unless you are running for President, in which case, it’s a requirement.”
James Joyner thinks Obama’s “new” plan is pretty much his old plan–which could still “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”
At Commentary, Peter Wehner says there is more than enough in Obama’s resistance to the surge, his overall assessment of the war, and his refusal to accept our recent success to disqualify him from being commander-in-chief. Wehner says the op-ed is the work of an “arrogant and intellectually rigid man”. Wehner’s colleague Max Boot weighs in as well, challenging Obama’s conclusions section-by-section.
John Hinderaker calls Obama’s op-ed “breathtakingly dishonest” in its attempt to vindicate his wrong decision about the surge, also criticizing Obama’s treatment of political progress in Iraq, and with regard to al-Qaeda and Afghanistan. According to Hinderaker, this could be the most dishonest thing produced by any “miscreant” in the history of American politics.
Posted in Election 08, Iraq, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
2008: “Unilateral Cowboy Summitry”
July 15th, 2008 by Matt
At Prospects for Peace, Daniel Levy gets a little riled up by the McCain campaign’s phraseology “unilateral cowboy summitry”, which they have consistently been applying to Barack Obama’s strategy for negotiations with Iran. Levy criticizes the phrase word-for-word, then analyzes each campaign’s policy prescriptions for Iran–and explains why this is an issue that Obama can win.
Posted in Election 08, Iran, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
