And many Presidents have had their dreams dashed on the rocky shore of foreign policy problems: LBJ and Vietnam, Carter and Iran, Ford and the "Last Flight from Saigon".
Each President is unique, and each foreign policy tends to be unique. Carter's foreign policy was different when compared to Reagan's foreign policy.
Obama's foreign policy is exemplified or defined by his Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said in her opening statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
"I believe that American leadership has been wanting, but is still wanted. We must use what has been called “smart power”: the full range of tools at our disposal -- diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural -- picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation.
With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy. This is not a radical idea. The ancient Roman poet Terence, who was born a slave and rose to become one of the great voices of his time, declared that “in every endeavor, the seemly course for wise men is to try persuasion first.” The same truth binds wise women as well.
The President-Elect has made it clear that in the Obama Administration there will be no doubt about the leading role of diplomacy. One need only look to North Korea, Iran, the Middle East, and the Balkans to appreciate the absolute necessity of tough-minded, intelligent diplomacy – and the failures that result when that kind of diplomatic effort is absent. And one need only consider the assortment of problems we must tackle in 2009 – from fighting terrorism to climate change to global financial crises – to understand the importance of cooperative engagement.
I assure you that, if I am confirmed, the State Department will be firing on all cylinders to provide forward-thinking, sustained diplomacy in every part of the world; applying pressure and exerting leverage; cooperating with our military partners and other agencies of government; partnering effectively with NGOs, the private sector, and international organizations; using modern technologies for public outreach; empowering negotiators who can protect our interests while understanding those of our negotiating partners. There will be thousands of separate interactions, all strategically linked and coordinated to defend American security and prosperity. Diplomacy is hard work; but when we work hard, diplomacy can work, and not just to defuse tensions, but to achieve results that advance our security, interests and values.
Secretary Gates has been particularly eloquent in articulating the importance of diplomacy in pursuit of our national security and foreign policy objectives. As he notes, it’s not often that a Secretary of Defense makes the case for adding resources to the State Department and elevating the role of the diplomatic corps. Thankfully, Secretary Gates is more concerned about having a unified, agile, and effective U.S. strategy than in spending our precious time and energy on petty turf wars. As he has stated, “our civilian institutions of diplomacy and development have been chronically undermanned and underfunded for far too long,” both relative to military spending and to “the responsibilities and challenges our nation has around the world.” And to that, I say, “Amen!”
President-elect Obama has emphasized that the State Department must be fully empowered and funded to confront multi-dimensional challenges – from working with allies to thwart terrorism, to spreading health and prosperity in places of human suffering. I will speak in greater detail about that in a moment.
We should also use the United Nations and other international institutions whenever appropriate and possible. Both Democratic and Republican presidents have understood for decades that these institutions, when they work well, enhance our influence. And when they don’t work well – as in the cases of Darfur and the farce of Sudan’s election to the former UN Commission on Human Rights, for example – we should work with likeminded friends to make sure that these institutions reflect the values that motivated their creation in the first place.
We will lead with diplomacy because it’s the smart approach. But we also know that military force will sometimes be necessary, and we will rely on it to protect our people and our interests when and where needed, as a last resort.
All the while, we must remember that to promote our interests around the world, America must be an exemplar of our values. Senator Isakson made the point to me the other day that our nation must lead by example rather than edict. Our history has shown that we are most effective when we see the harmony between our interests abroad and our values at home. And I take great comfort in knowing that our first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, also subscribed to that view, reminding us across the centuries: “The interests of a nation, when well understood, will be found to coincide with their moral duties.”
So while our democracy continues to inspire people around the world, we know that its influence is greatest when we live up to its teachings ourselves.
Senator Lugar, I’m going to borrow your words here, because you have made this point so eloquently: You once said that 'the United States cannot feed every person, lift every person out of poverty, cure every disease, or stop every conflict. But our power and status have conferred upon us a tremendous responsibility to humanity.'"
So, let's get our passports ready, our foreign language guidebooks thumbed through, and our money converted. We'll start with a "pit stop", and a relatively easy one.
Foreign Policy Pit Stop: Foreign Aid
Although I listed this as a pit stop (due to the fact that though foreign aid is a tangible and vital part of US foreign policy operations, it tends to be used as a sentence filler in speeches, and is fairly business-like and somewhat mundane), it could also be considered a "snake pit", due to certain groups with a political ideology and affiliation not often in keeping with multilateralism and internationalism tend to use foreign aid as a whipping boy or strawman. Anyway, foreign aid is really very simple: one country, usually fairly well-off, will give another country, usually not very well off or in dire need, monetary assistance or shipments of goods and products. It can be anything from humanitarian aid (meaning disaster relief, like shipments of water and food) to development aid (meaning money or equipment intended to promote economic and social development. It's different from humanitarian aid in that development aid is intended for long term alleviation of social problems, like hunger, poor health, lack of education and inadequate sustainable development, while humanitarian aid is for the here-and-now, emergency stuff). It is partly used as a negotiating tactic in international negotiations. You know "You scratch my back, I scratch my signature into a check for $12 billion for water purification equipment". It's often used to obtain a certain objective. Having the United States give your country a couple billion in money and an agreement to assist with border defense makes a missile shield that much more palatable.
The official "aid" person in the United States Government is, surprise, the Director of Foreign Assistance AKA the USAID Administrator (USAID stands for "United States Agency for International Development0. USAID Admin is a position equivalent to the Deputy Secretary of State. According to the State Department's website, the vision statement for the DFA is as follows:
Ensure the strategic and effective use of foreign assistance resources to respond to global needs, make the world safer, and help people better their own lives by supporting programs that:
- Advance human rights and freedoms;
- Promote sustainable economic growth and reduce widespread poverty;
- Promote and support democratic, well-governed states;
- Increase access to quality education, combat disease, and improve public health;
- Respond to urgent humanitarian needs;
- Prevent and respond to conflict; and
- Address transnational threats.
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