Obama’s Foreign Engagement Scorecard

STATESMAN President Obama brokered a climate agreement in Copenhagen Friday.




He must have the skill and personality needed for brokering compromises. Much of the world does look to the US for leadership, but it is a challenge to translate that to practical results.

If there is a one-word handle that fits the conduct of foreign relations in Barack Obama’s first year as president, it is “engagement.” The Obama administration has engaged with Iran, Russia, Burma, Sudan, North Korea. “Engagement” sounds harmless — something any sensible administration would do (though the Bush administration apparently did far less of it).

But what, in fact, does President Obama have to show for “engagement” itself? And how do you keep score? He has just emerged from Copenhagen having brokered an agreement, however modest, on climate change. Does that count?

There is difficulty in measuring progress, yet less than a year has passed since he took office. It seems very early to make judgments. Of course, that does not stop pundits from doing so.

To some conservatives, engagement thus sounds like a euphemism for “appeasement.” Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, argues, “There is a perception around the world that Obama is proceeding on bended knee to our enemies, and they’re rebuffing us contemptuously.”

How does this pundit know what perceptions there are "around the world"?

Iran is both the most important, and the most passionately disputed, case. Engagement here would seem to have been a failure — but only if you take the policy wholly at face value. One senior administration official who was not authorized to speak on the record says that while the offer of engagement was “never just an instrument or a ploy,” and remains on the table, the very public effort to exhaust all available means of persuasion has helped move Europe, Russia and China toward a tougher stance.

Perhaps, then, the ultimate measure of the success of the engagement policy will be the extent to which the good will President Obama has generated will tip the balance in the hard bargaining before his administration — over assistance from allies in Afghanistan, over new approaches to the Middle East and the international economic structure, and, most immediately, in the struggle to reach a meaningful agreement on how to slow global warming — an issue where the global good collides with the most basic questions of national interest. The credit Mr. Obama has earned will have to stretch a very long way.

Modern Flourishes at Obamas’ State Dinner

Gursharan Kaur, the first lady of India, Michelle Obama, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, and President Obama arrived for the state Dinner.


More Photos »


It is an old tradition, a White House dinner governed by ritual and protocol that happens to be this city’s hottest social event. But at their first state dinner on Tuesday night, President Obama and his wife, Michelle, made sure to infuse the glittering gala with distinctive touches.

They hired a new florist, Laura Dowling, who bedecked the tented outdoor dining room with locally grown, sustainably harvested magnolia branches and ivy. They selected a guest chef, Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit in New York, an American citizen who was born in Ethiopia, reared in Sweden and cooks up melting pots of flavors and cuisines.

They invited local students to witness the arrival of the guests of honor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India and his wife, Gursharan Kaur, and presented a mélange of musical entertainment, including the National Symphony Orchestra; Jennifer Hudson, the singer and actress; Kurt Elling, the jazz musician from Chicago; and A. R. Rahman, the Indian composer who wrote the score to the movie “Slumdog Millionaire.”

And at the tables, the meatless menu included a mix of Indian and American favorites, including some African-American standards. Collard greens and curried prawns, chickpeas and okra, nan and cornbread were served to the 320 guests — including some well-known Republicans and prominent Indian-Americans — who started off with arugula from the White House garden and finished up with pumpkin pie tart. (After a tasting at the White House on Sunday, the Obamas gave the dishes their stamp of approval, Mr. Samuelsson said.)








Obamas Host State Dinner

The Caucus: The State Dinner Guest List

The Caucus: State Dinner Highlights

In Africa, Clinton Balances

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greets Liberians as she arrives at the presidential palace in Monrovia on Thursday. Mrs. Clinton offered support for Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who has faced calls to resign.
Slideshow


Mrs. Clinton's seven-nation trip through Africa, which ends Friday, has been a balancing act between calling for good governance, while protecting U.S.-African economic ties. Those relationships are especially important now, as China, a U.S. economic competitor in Africa, has increasingly invested in the continent, offering loans, building roads and striking deals for commodities.

The US has neglected Africa for decades, only stepping in during times of crisis, and then in a rather perfunctory way -- although George W. Bush did provide a major contribution to fighting AIDS. Africa will become more valuable as a market and of greater strategic importance in the years ahead, dn it behooves the US to act.

Mrs. Clinton's Africa trip is the latest example of her push for so-called personalized diplomacy, which focuses as much on meeting businessmen and civil-society groups as heads of state and diplomats. In her speeches, the secretary underscored the Obama administration's commitment to "soft power" and using trade, technology and aid in addition to military power to protect American interests.

The shift in strategy may improve relations with African governments that chafe at Western criticism, but win less support from Africans themselves. Mrs. Clinton's trip comes as Africans have begun to question their leaders, even under oppressive regimes, more openly.

Cape Verde is a major US aid recipient.

The approach is a stark departure from that of the Bush administration, which in some cases openly challenged close allies. But the soft approach may cause problems of its own. Human-rights organizations could seize on the strategy as a waning of American resolve to exert influence. President Barack Obama's political critics could claim the approach places economic interests over moral obligations.

Such stentorian lecturing of waning political resolved does much to mollify the consciences of the lecturers, yet accomplishes little in practical terms. Moral obligations? To do what? Lecture? Pontificate? How about practical accomplishments?

Clinton Says Liberia Making Progress

Clinton Says Liberia Making Progress in Fighting Corruption

Voice of America - Scott Stearns - ‎1 hour ago‎

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's government is making significant progress in the fight against corruption.

Preaching reform, Clinton wins African hearts The Associated Press

Clinton Backs Liberia's Leaders New York Times

BBC News - Bloomberg - TIME - NPR

Hugo gonna be mad

The U.S., in an apparent softening of its support for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, won't impose economic sanctions on Honduras and has yet to decide whether Mr. Zelaya's removal from office constitutes a coup.

Diplomacy's gears grind exceedingly slowly.

A letter from the State Department to Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, states that the U.S. "energetically" opposes Mr. Zelaya's June 28 ouster. But the letter also expresses the harshest criticism yet of Mr. Zelaya's own actions that preceded his removal from office, including trying to change Honduras's constitution to potentially stay in power.

Good crisis management: take the opposition's firepower away by agreeing with them, the slowly backtrack. Nicely done.

With Washington unwilling to take drastic steps such as sanctions to restore Mr. Zelaya to power, it seems increasingly unlikely that the leftist politician will return to his seat, analysts said. Honduras's interim government, backed by much of the country's establishment and middle class, appears unwilling to have Mr. Zelaya back, and Washington seems in no mood to force the issue.

What will Mary Anastasia O'Grady and her ilk think now? They'll find something to gripe about.

"In Honduras, Washington's wavering will be seen as a sign that the government can wait it out until the elections and that the costs they are bearing for international isolation, while considerable, are preferable to the risks of allowing Zelaya to return, even for a limited time and with his authority curtailed," said Michael Shifter at the Inter-American Dialogue, a nonpartisan think tank on hemispheric affairs in Washington.

Bill and Kim's excellent adventure

This image taken from video footage shows former President Bill Clinton and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il posing for a picture in Pyongyang on Tuesday.


This is what North Koreans wanted: recognition, attention.

Former President Bill Clinton met on Tuesday with Kim Jong-il, the reclusive and ailing leader of North Korea, while on a visit to negotiate the release of two imprisoned American television journalists, North Korean state media reported.

The high-level meeting, along with welcoming gestures from the regime, added to speculation among analysts in Seoul that North Korea, after months of raising tensions and hostile rhetoric towards Washington, may be ready to return to dialogue with Washington.

That notion was reinforced by North Korea’s Central TV, which reported that Mr. Kim and Mr. Clinton “exchanged a broad range of opinions on issues of mutual interest.” Tensions have been high since a nuclear test by the North on May 25 and the subsequent American-led effort to impose international sanctions against the North.

Mr. Clinton relayed a “verbal message” from President Obama to Mr. Kim, the report said, without revealing its content. Mr. Kim welcomed Mr. Clinton and thanked him for carrying the Obama message before the two engaged in “sincere discussions,” it added. However, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, denied that any such message had been relayed.

As the world turns

Acting President Roberto Micheletti of Honduras, shown Tuesday in Tegucigalpa, is seeking an envoy’s help to forge a deal.










July 30, 2009
Honduran Leader Backs Return of President
By GINGER THOMPSON

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The head of Honduras’s de facto government, Roberto Micheletti, has expressed support for a compromise that would allow the ousted president of his country to return to power, according to officials in the de facto government and diplomats from the region.

But the nation is so polarized over the possible return that Mr. Micheletti is reaching out to other regional leaders for help in building support for such a deal, especially among the country’s elite, the officials said.

Mr. Micheletti has repeatedly refused to consider the reinstatement of the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya. But on Wednesday, the officials said, Mr. Micheletti called President Óscar Arias of Costa Rica, who has tried to mediate a diplomatic solution to the Honduran political crisis, to express his support for a plan Mr. Arias presented. The 12-point plan, known as the San José Accord, would allow Mr. Zelaya to return as president, although with significantly limited powers.

The officials said Mr. Micheletti warned President Arias that he had not been able to persuade other parts of the Honduran government, or the leaders of the Honduran business community, to go along with the proposal. So he asked Mr. Arias to consider sending a prominent international political figure to help him stem the fierce opposition.

Mr. Micheletti confirmed Wednesday night in a statement that he had asked Mr. Arias to send an international envoy.

One of those whom officials mentioned as a possibility was Enrique V. Iglesias, a former president of the Inter-American Development Bank.

“Today is an important day,” said one of the officials who spoke about Mr. Micheletti’s call to Mr. Arias. “President Arias essentially has Mr. Micheletti calling to say he thinks the San José Accord is a good framework, but that to make the accord work, he needs help building political support inside the country.”

Another official who confirmed the call echoed that sentiment, saying, “This is good news.”

The officials requested anonymity because of the delicacy of the negotiations.

The call from Mr. Micheletti came one day after the United States increased pressure on the de facto Honduran government by withdrawing diplomatic visas from four high-level officials, and as members of the Honduran Congress began their own examination of Mr. Arias’s proposal.

The call was the clearest signal yet that Mr. Micheletti might not be primarily responsible for the stalemate. Diplomats close to the negotiations said there was broad opposition to Mr. Zelaya’s return, led by some of the most powerful political and business leaders in Honduras.

Those leaders have felt misunderstood — some would say betrayed — by the international community’s condemnation of last month’s ouster of Mr. Zelaya, whom they accuse of illegally trying to change the Constitution to extend his time in power.

Honduran lawmakers and the Supreme Court have said that it was a mistake for the military to have forced Mr. Zelaya into exile, but that the accusations against him are valid. And they argue that the only way he should be allowed back is to face trial.

According to Mr. Arias’s proposal, Mr. Zelaya would be allowed to finish his term, which ends in January, although elections would be moved up by one month. Mr. Zelaya would also be exempt from prosecution until after leaving office.

None of those points seemed acceptable to members of the Honduran Congress who were huddled all Wednesday to consider the Arias proposal. “Impunity should not exist in this country,” said Congressman Antonio C. Rivera. “No one is above the law.”

Honduras today

Supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya clash with soldiers near the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa on Monday.
View Interactive

Dealing with the first Latin American crisis of his presidency, Barack Obama sought a swift, clear response that would not be interpreted as U.S. interventionism in a region that loathes it. So he condemned a coup in Honduras by turning to the most reliable of friends: democracy.

And is on the same side as Hugo Chávez: opposing the removal of Zelaya. Of course, their opinions differ: Mr. Chávez cast the dispute in Honduras as a wider rebellion by the region's poor against elites. Mr. Chávez threatened to "overthrow" Mr. Zelaya's replacement, Mr. Micheletti. In response, Mr. Micheletti told local Honduras radio: "Nobody scares us."

Overthrow?

Mr. Obama found himself in the unusual situation of siding with Mr. Chávez to a point, describing the situation as a "coup" that was "illegal" and would set a "terrible precedent" were it allowed to stand.

Of course there is a lot of bluster and expressed indignity; yet the actions taken, or not taken, speak louder than the torrents of words. Ten Latin American countries agreed to withdraw their ambassadors from Honduras until Mr. Zelaya is returned to power. Perhaps that could be qualified as only ten.

Of course, right wing opinion in the US is indignant that the Administration is defending the concept of democracyt, rather than exulting in Zelaya's overthrow and exile. Mary Anastasia O'Grady, the WSJ Latin America opinionator, as right-wing as her paper's editorial board, condemns Secretary Clinton, lumping her with Fidel. First, some sarcasm, then, criticism.

Hugo Chávez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution. It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.

Mel? Perhaps Mary is a good friend of Manuel. Honduras, she states, is being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself.

Mary concludes: The struggle against chavismo has never been about left-right politics. It is about defending the independence of institutions that keep presidents from becoming dictators. This crisis clearly delineates the problem. In failing to come to the aid of checks and balances, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Insulza expose their true colors.

True colors? [OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza] The US can not support an overthrow of an elected president; it is called diplomacy. Columnists don't need to exercise it, but nations do.

View Slideshow

More nuanced analysis does exist. Jose Raul Perales, a Latin American scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, said Obama's response to the crisis was prompt and in unison with leaders of the hemisphere and beyond. Obama can bring considerable leverage to the matter and add credibility to an emerging regional response, he said.

But there are still bigger problems in Honduras — the failed democratic institutions that led the nation to resort to a military coup. The conflict came about after a referendum Zelaya had called in defiance of Honduras' courts and Congress, one seen as a way for him to stay in power beyond his term limit. That means even if Obama can help lead a brokered peace, deeper issues remain. "The tensions will persist regardless of the outcome," Perales said.

The fact remains that Zelaya was subverting democracy from within.

Isolation from the international community may not be enough to create cracks in Honduras's political establishment, which appeared to be solidly against Mr. Zelaya. But some analysts said his forced exile was a political mistake by his opponents. "Zelaya did not have overwhelming support to begin with," said John Carey, a Latin America expert at Dartmouth College. "Now the military has alienated every other country in that hemisphere."

More than the military is involved: the Congress and the Supreme Court, too.

Now, a question so far unanswered is: who is Manuel Zelaya?

Roberto Micheletti, a 63-year-old businessman and stalwart Liberal Party member, took the oath of office Sunday to replace another Liberal politician, Manuel Zelaya, 56, a rich rancher who was deposed in a predawn raid that day and exiled to Costa Rica.

A rich rancher? He, then, is part of the elite Hogo Chávez condemns.

Mr. Zelaya is a tall man who sports a trademark Stetson. He studied industrial engineering, but dropped out of college to manage his family's ranches. He served in Congress before running for president in 2006 on a populist platform that blasted the rich and promised to fight crime, corruption and poverty.

His family's ranches. And he blasted the rich?

Mr. Micheletti calls himself a "right-wing progressive" and says he is a good friend of the U.S., which he said has always helped Honduras. Mr. Micheletti has served in political and party posts in five Liberal governments.

Right-wing progressive is indeed a curious phrase.

Don't bother

Iran Diplomats Uninvited to Party

Well, the Iranian diplomats probably would have been party-poopers anyway. The State Department has rescinded its invitation to Iranian envoys for its July 4 wienie roast, saying that the Iranians are no longer welcome. The invitation, approved by Hillary Clinton herself, was given a great deal of press several weeks ago, as it was a concrete sign of improving relations between the two countries. President Obama said Tuesday that it was up to the Iranians to decide if they still wanted to attend. But today, a State Department spokesman told the Associated Press that "the U.S. saw little reason for them to (attend) given the political crisis over their disputed presidential election."

Read it at The Associated Press

Unsung Savior

A Salvadoran Diplomat in Nazi Europe Lent His Nation's Protection to Hungarian Jews.

Triunfo diplomático del presidente Fernández y RD en Cumbre del Grupo de Río

A diplomatic triumph for the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández. Nice picture.

Belarus Expels U.S. Ambassador, Recalls Envoy From Washington

File this under the category of things that happen in other parts of the world that we might not be aware of, but matter. Wonder if W even knows where the heck Belarus is? Cheney's chief of staff musta told 'im.