Obama Advocates a Peaceful and Multilateral US Leadership

America will remain for decades the undisputed leading power and ” the indispensable nation,” said Wednesday President Barack Obama, but global leadership is not based on military force or unilateral actions but in diplomacy and cooperation.

In a speech at the Military Academy at West Point, Temple of U.S. militarism, Obama made a case about the U.S. role in the world and a foreign policy that, in recent months has raised doubts in his country and among allies about its real influence. The withdrawal issued by the President after more than a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has left room to emerging powers and old rivals. In Asia, the booming China does not hide its regional ambitions; in Europe, Russia has annexed a portion of another sovereign country, Ukraine; in Syria, the White House hesitation allowed to continue a war that, in three years, has left more than 150,000 dead.

Obama tried to dispel these doubts in the graduation speech at the military academy. He explained that the U.S. hegemony can not be the sole component military power. He stressed that the greatest threat are not states but other terrorist groups and does not require combat deployments armies but operations with other countries or actions with commands or drones. And it is argued that the existence of strong international institutions and respect for international law reinforcing U.S. influence.

“America must always lead on the world stage. If we do not, nobody else will. The armed forces in which we have entered is, and always will be, the backbone of this leadership, ” Obama told the cadets. ” But the U.S. military action can not be the only or the main component of our leadership at all levels.”

In practical terms, the doctrine that Obama made in West Point means, for example, that the U.S. will not intervene militarily in Syria and, at most, will provide assistance to the rebels in moderate form of military training. It also implies that, after the withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 and after announcing Tuesday withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan by the end of 2016, the focus will move to the fight against terrorism in the Middle East and Africa. One of the few concrete results for the speech was the request to Congress to create a fund of $ 5,000 million to prepare other countries to combat terrorism.

The U.S. president sought a middle ground between the two trends, like a pendulum, have marked the country ‘s foreign policy: isolationism and interventionism; realpolitik that sees the world in terms of national interests and idealism that seeks to export the values of democracy and human rights, even at the missile hit. Obama’s response is a balanced approach: lead, yes, but with other allies and without overloading with missions to the armed forces; retreat, too, but without losing influence.

Isolationism, Obama said, “is not an option.” The reckless interventionism – ” will launch into military adventures without thinking about the consequences, either. The question is not whether the U.S. will lead the world, but how. These shades reflect the concerns of the American public, reluctant interventionism but concerned about the international image of weakness of his commander in chief.

He explained that only in cases directly to the interests and U.S. security threat contemplate unilateral intervention in the style of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, decided by his predecessor, George W. Bush. No direct threat, the “threshold” to intervene will be more demanding and in any case the U.S. will never do alone. The example here is the intervention in Libya in 2011.

With Al Qaeda ” decentralized ” with franchises in several countries without Osama bin Laden killed by U.S. forces in 2011 – “the possibilities of large-scale attacks 9/11 style has been reduced.” The threat is now affecting U.S. personnel in other countries, as happened with the attack on Benghazi (Libya) in 2012, or against civilians, including the Mall of Nairobi (Kenya) in 2013. This requires cooperation with local authorities. Africa is the new stage of the war against Al Qaeda and related groups.

The other leg of the Obama doctrine is diplomacy. The president said the U.S. sanctions against Russia and the EU and celebration on Sunday, elections in Ukraine, as an example of this method. Another example is the nuclear negotiations with Iran.

“This is the American leadership. This is the American force. In both cases, we build coalitions to respond to a specific challenge, “he said. “What makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it’s our willingness to affirm them through our actions.”

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Posted by Nadeem Bajwa on May 30 2014. Filed under Latest News, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.