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AmericasJune 3 2007

America’s attack-dog foreign policy thrown to the wolves

Much work is required for the US to regain a position of moral authority required to take on new challenges around the world.
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A rethink on foreign policy is overdue and likely at the White House whether by this incumbent or the next. Given the poor results from the US administration’s current hard line policies of confrontation, of ignoring international law and going against the consensus style of multilateral institutions, what will the new policies look like?

A return to the isolationist tendencies of the then Republican-dominated Congress that plagued the Clinton administration would not improve things but it should be clear by now that only the right kind of engagement can bring about positive outcomes. The swaggering, get-tough style of the Bush administration has lost the US the ability to persuade on any issue and pushed anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and elsewhere to all-time highs.

The failures abroad are reflected in President George Bush’s poll ratings at home where more Americans believe in space aliens than support the US president. With the departure last month from the World Bank of Paul Wolfowitz – one of the original signatories of the 1997 statement of the Project for the New American Century – the neo-con era may finally have been confined to the historical dustbin. (Never rule out a few last gasps however before the lid is finally shut.)

Much work will now be required for the US to regain a position of moral authority and tackle the challenges that exist on so many fronts: in the Middle East where anti-American Shia Muslims in Iran, Iraq and some of the Gulf states are more powerful than ever before; in Latin America where President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is funding an anti-US coalition; and in China where economic boom and competitive threat is producing a kind of China-phobia in the US Congress. Only a credible administration with intellectual depth and serious ideas could stand up to Congress on this issue as well as rebuild bridges overseas.

Which political party provides such a response is irrelevant. It could come from either side (as it could in the UK) but a transition in thinking is definitely under way.

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Read more about:  Analysis & opinion , Comment , Americas , US