America in the World | Notable arguments

Max Boot finds evidence that al-Qaeda is in retreat

Max Boot in Commentary magazine:

"It turns out that, far from emerging victorious, al Qaeda in Iraq has been driven out of its erstwhile strongholds in Anbar, Baghdad, and Diyala provinces. Its last refuge is in the northern city of Mosul, and even there, thanks to a joint Iraqi-American offensive, attacks were cut in half during the month of May. From Basra to Baghdad, Shiite terrorists loosely affiliated with Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi army are also in retreat, thanks primarily to the operations of the Iraqi security forces under the direction of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Outside of Iraq and Afghanistan, al Qaeda has not managed to mount any major attacks on an American target, much less on the American homeland, since 9/11. Those attacks that have succeeded have been fairly minor compared with past al-Qaeda atrocities: a 2004 assault on the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killed five local employees and no Americans."

Nicholas Wapshott wonders if Europeans love Obama because he shares their worldview

Nicholas Wapshott in City Journal:

"Obama’s early and long-standing opposition to the Iraq War has made him a standard bearer for an anti-Americanism that is now rife throughout the European Union. Many Europeans see his unusual family background and his mixed ethnicity as confirmation of their belief that he is not quite wholly American—that he is even, perhaps, un-American."

Martha Bayles notes Nicholas J Cull's components of public diplomacy

Martha Bayles reviewed Mr Cull's book, The Cold War and the United States Information Agency, for The Wall Street Journal:

"Mr. Cull's invaluable contribution is to divide public diplomacy into five components, beginning with the most important: listening. Initially, USIA did research and analysis of foreign opinion, and the director sat on the National Security Council and shared these soundings with policy makers. (This changed under President Nixon.) The second component, advocacy, is also tied to policy, in the sense of shaping an overall propaganda "message" in its favor.  Third is cultural diplomacy, connecting Americans with others through artistic and intellectual activities. Scorned by "hard power" types and drowned out by commercial entertainment, cultural diplomacy nevertheless played a vital role in the Cold War. But for complicated reasons -- having to do with the "culture wars" of the 1980s and 1990s -- it has been sidelined ever since. More favored these days is exchange diplomacy, most often educational (e.g., the Fulbright Program) but also professional and civic, as in Eisenhower's "people-to- people" programs of citizen diplomacy and sister cities.  Then there is international broadcasting, originally news and opinion sent by short-wave radio into both friendly and unfriendly territory, as the VOA did during World War II and continues to do; and "surrogate broadcasting," as conducted by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. Today the focus is no longer on Europe: The joke is that RFE-RL is now "Europe-Free Radio." The main regions of service are rather Central Asia and the Middle East. Yet while these services make use of every media platform under the sun, they continue to be torn between advocacy and news. And more recent channels, like Radio Sawa and Al Hurra TV, have yet to distinguish themselves in either respect."

David Aaronovitch notes the persistence of anti-Americanism since Eisenhower

David Aaronovitch in The Times:

"There isn't an American president since Eisenhower who hasn't ended up, at some point or other, being depicted by the world's cartoonists as a cowboy astride a phallic missile. It happened to Bill Clinton when he bombed Iraq; it will happen to Mr Obama when his reinforced forces in Afghanistan or Pakistan mistake a meeting of tribal elders for an unwise gathering of Taleban and al-Qaeda. Then the new president (or, if McCain, the old president) will be the target of that mandarin Anglo-French conceit that our superior colonialism somehow gives us the standing to critique the Yank's naive and inferior imperialism."

Bronwen Maddox says Europe is learning to appreciate America's role in overcoming shared problems

Bronwen Maddox in The Wall Street Journal:

"There is a sense now in Europe that this hostility is fading in a new appreciation of shared problems. Afghanistan is one of those -- but one where the U.S. contributes by far the greatest military resources (about 85% of the air power and two-thirds of the military effort overall). So is Iran, and so is Africa; in Britain, the U.S.'s willingness to stand firmly behind a drive for sanctions on Zimbabwe was deeply appreciated as an affirmation of shared democratic values. Russia is prickly, bordering on systematically obstructive to Western goals, and Europe is well aware of its dependence on the gas pipelines running westwards and the value of American support in this difficult diplomacy. There is a new sense that Europe should be careful what it wishes for; that it is harder to persuade the U.S. to stay engaged in these problems than to keep it at bay."

Bill Kristol encourages Barack Obama to be Kennedyesque in facing up to Islamic supremacism

Bill Kristol in the New York Times:

"When President Kennedy spoke to a huge crowd in front of West Berlin’s city hall in June 1963, victory in the cold war seemed a distant hope. The Soviets had crushed the East German uprising of 1953 and the Hungarian rebellion of 1956. Castro had taken power in 1959. The Berlin Wall had gone up in 1961. The Cuban Missile Crisis had brought the world to the brink of war less than a year before. There were many, in Europe and elsewhere, who wanted to find a way out of the struggle.  Speaking on behalf of “the world of freedom,” Kennedy challenged the anti-anti-Communists and the peaceniks. He chastised the “many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world.” He rebuked those “who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists.” To all of them, Kennedy memorably said: “Let them come to Berlin.”  Perhaps Obama — with the Victory Column at his back — will also challenge those who think it impossible to imagine victory today. Perhaps Obama will also warn of the temptation of assuming we can somehow avoid confronting the terrorists and jihadists, and those who support them."

Thomas Friedman asks if the world would welcome Russia and China filling America's shoes

Thomas L Friedman in The New York Times:

"Maybe Asians, Europeans, Latin Americans and Africans don’t like a world of too much American power — “Mr. Big” got a little too big for them. But how would they like a world of too little American power? With America’s overextended military and overextended banks, that is the world into which we may be heading.  Welcome to a world of too much Russian and Chinese power.  I am neither a Russia-basher nor a China-basher. But there was something truly filthy about Russia’s and China’s vetoes of the American-led U.N. Security Council effort to impose targeted sanctions on Robert Mugabe’s ruling clique in Zimbabwe."

Gideon Rachman salutes the seriousness of American journalism

Gideon Rachman in The Financial Times:

"American journalists, I realised, regard themselves as members of a respectable profession – like lawyers or bankers. Their British counterparts generally prefer the idea that they are outsiders. They like to quote the adage of the late Nicholas Tomalin that: “The only qualities essential for real success in journalism are rat-like cunning, a plausible manner and a little literary ability.”... The Americans are stuffier and more cautious. But they are also more careful and take the idea of journalism as a civic duty much more seriously. Much as it pains me to say this, I fear the Americans are closer to being right than the British."

William McGurn applauds George W Bush's record in Africa

William McGurn in The Wall Street Journal:

"For while the rhetoric about Uncle Sam's global leadership tends to the harsh and negative, the record tells a different story. Under President George W. Bush, the U.S. has taken the lead on issues from combating malaria to breaking down trade barriers that keep the crops of poor African farmers out of First World markets. No one else is even close.  Take HIV/AIDS. Before the president launched his Emergency Program for Aids Relief in 2003, only 50,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa afflicted with the disease were receiving treatment. Since then, the U.S. has helped deliver lifesaving treatment to nearly 1.5 million Africans – many of them women and children. To put this in perspective, the president's AIDS initiative is the largest commitment ever by any nation for an international health initiative dedicated to a single disease."