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The Obama administration is in the midst of doing something rather extraordinary. While most of the U.S. government and frankly, most major governments worldwide, are mired in a swamp of political paralysis, victims of their own inaction, the president and his national security team are engineering a profound, forward-looking, and rather remarkable change.
It is addressed directly in National Security Advisor Tom Donilon's column in today's Financial Times entitled "America is back in the Pacific and will uphold the rules." It has been manifested in the president's recent trip to Asia and it will be further underscored through Secretary of State Clinton's historic trip to Myanmar later this week.
Superficially, this shift can be and might be perceived to be what Clinton has called "the pivot" from the Middle East to Asia as the principal focus for U.S. foreign policy. But as Donilon's brief article effectively communicates, this shift is far more sweeping and important than has been fully appreciated.
In the beginning of the article, he writes that presidents must struggle to avoid become so caught up in crisis management that they lose sight of the country's strategic goals. Listing the astonishing array of crises President Obama has faced, Donilon then notes that he has nonetheless managed to pursue "a rebalancing of our foreign policy priorities -- and renewed our long-standing alliances, including NATO -- to ensure that our focus and our resources match our nation's most important strategic interests." Asia, he asserts, has become "the centerpiece" of this strategy.
As the article goes on it reveals dimensions of this pivot that have gotten less attention than the simple but nonetheless refreshing restatement of the Obama administration's recognition that -- to oversimplify for contrast's sake -- China is more important to America than Iraq. Because while Donilon writes of regional security agreements and the decision by the administration to embark on a "more broadly distributed, more flexible and more sustainable" defense strategy in the Pacific Basin, what is striking about the article is how often the words it uses and the subjects it references are economic in nature.
Donilon speaks of our priorities in the region as tying to "security, prosperity and human dignity." He defines security needs in terms of concerns about commerce and navigation. He talks about alliances as being "the foundation for the region's prosperity." And he makes a core point of saying that "As part of an open international economic order, nations must play by the same rules, including trade that is free and fair, level playing fields on which businesses can compete, intellectual property that is protected everywhere and market-driven currencies."
Establishing, observing and enforcing international rules are another core theme of the piece and of the statements that Obama, Clinton, Donilon, and others have regularly been underscoring.
The message then is not just that the United States has shifted its regional priorities. It is that the Obama administration has undertaken a broad redefinition of the concept of national security. It has gone back to its roots in that. Washington himself argued that the only reason to even have a foreign policy was to protect commercial interests. But those were simpler times and a different America. We have very real security interests. Violent extremism remains a threat to our national interests in the Middle East and elsewhere. But this president has in a comparatively short time, done more than just "rebalance." He has restored balance, recognizing the deep and essential interplay between our economic and security interests.
That his national security advisor is at the forefront of making this case ... much as his secretary of state has been in her recent New York and Hong Kong speeches on the subject ... illustrates how central this has all become. That national security officials are often planning the lead role in delivering these messages stands in marked contrast to some of Obama's recent predecessors, even Bill Clinton who shared his desire for a broader definition of foreign policy.
So, the "pivot" is actually multi-dimensional. We are not only winding down our wars in the Middle East and shifting our focus to Asia, not just moving away from massive conventional ground wars against terrorist but mastering more surgical drone, intelligence and special forces-driven tactics, not just closing the book on exceptionalist, unilateralist policies and moving to toward multilateralist, rules-based approaches, not just setting aside reckless defense spending and moving toward living within our means, not just ditching the binary "you're with us or you're against us" rhetoric for policies open to more complex realities (as with China, our rival and key partner), but we have also made a pronounced move toward recognizing that the foundations of U.S. national security are also economic and so too are some of our most potent tools.
The talk that somehow because of Guantanamo or because of continued need to go after terror targets Obama was somehow just like Bush needs to end. The change in foreign policy has been sweeping and the results will make almost certainly make America stronger in the long run. It is interesting however, that the only ones who have not seemed to get this message are the Republican candidates for President who appear, based on their last debate performance, to be the only people in America who are nostalgic for panicked, reckless, dangerous, and ineffective security policies of the Bush years.
ROMEO GACAD/AFP/Getty Images
Lets hear it for the intellectual elite!
Republican candidates for President who appear (edit) to be the only people in America who are nostalgic for (edit) ineffective security policies of the Bush years.
That's because they subscribe to the fear based motivational aspect of the electorate. Fortunately the American public isn't as stupid as the Ultra-Conservatives would like to think. They did take advantage of the huge generation gap between voters who learned the same lesson with Vietnam, that this generation just re-learned with Iraq and Afghanistan. But it's going to take a lot longer than one election cycle for the voters to get over how badly they got hosed by the MIC
More PR and smoke and mirrors from obama
this aint no pivot, its using the overblown fear of the rise of china to distance themselves from the Middle east where their policies have been a total failure and where the obama admin has in FACT brought war closer, not farther...obama is an anti israel president and wrongly thinks if he distances himself from israel that he will win over the islamists....and he is going to be disastrously wrong.
this is classic obama tactics...man is he a useless president. jesse jacksons words are coming true.
hey buddy, america never fights for israel
we fight our own wars...and we win ours, unlike your american fiascos.
not one US soldier has died defending israel. not one.
america fought for kuwait...they fought for saudi, they fought for the kurds, they fought for south korea, they fought for south vietnam, but they never fought for israel. and guess what? israel doesnt need them to fight for them...
iraq wasnt fought for israel, a la conspiracy theories, it was fought for global stability of oil ...same as the first iraq war which was fought for kuwait and saudi....... afghanistan was fought because of 9/11, not for israel. 9/11 happened because the US is a good moral nation whose fp pisses off a lot of bad amoral terrorists. israel had nothing to do with any of that....but of course, anti sems will blame jews for anything...
you know what us jews think of that? we laugh at you. we think your pathetic uneducated fools. and were right.
... let's look at this claim that no American soldier ever died fighting to defend Israel. Not one. Technically correct, but misleading. On June 8, 1967, Israeli air force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli navy torpedo boats in a combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two Marines, and one civilian), wounded 170 crew members, and severely damaged a United States navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, in international waters while clearly marked according to international standards as a US navy vessel.
This was done to defend Israel, whose post-op oops was based on the claim the ship had not been flying the United States flag (that is, it was the Americans' own silly fault that killed or wounded just about everybody on board that day.)
USS Liberty survivors contacted by a Chicago Tribune reporter in 2007 "to a man" rejected Israel's mistaken identity explanation. The then director of the National Security Agency told Congress in sworn evidence that the attack "couldn't be anything else but deliberate."
The US government's decision to turn its back on the sworn word of those survivors so as to provide Israel with an easy out will remind any who have read Homer's Iliad of the moment when King Priam of Troy disguised himself to enter the enemy camp and kiss the hands of the man who had killed his son in combat and defiled his body a few hours earlier -- this so the dead son could be buried with due religious ritual.
What part of Israel Washington kissed in the deal to allow Israel to describe the 200-plus souls aboard USS Liberty as a pack of careless bunglers rather than professional seamen and scientists, I don't care to guess. And why that kiss?
the more i make you talk, the more you look like a fool!
hahahahahaha.....you're so stupid..its like taking candy from a baby...
stop worrying so much about israel fella...were fine...we can take careof ourselves..we always do If I was you, I would care a lot more about the billions your wasting on egypt, on pakistan, on even your insane interest on the debt. Israel is a light unto thw world...we give you and the world breakthroughs in medicine, agriculture, biotech, defensive military applications which the US buys in droves, in computers, in telecommunications...and many many more industries...we are achievers, plain and simple. As for our 3000 yrs, just because other cultures have been barbaric to us, that does not make us barbaric....you merely point out what we already know....that most other cultures are totally inferior to us. I'm sorry if you dont like hearing that, but, its true. Its all on the record for you to see.
:-))))
technically speaking, thats the fog of war eh buddy?
a reporter in 2007 from chicago? home of obama? lol....
the incident you refer to was an accident, and was dealt with properly at the time. Your revisionism is stretching my point though, and that is; no US soldier ever died in war defending israel and israel has never asked to be defended anyhow by anyone. If your soldiers die in battle, they do so honourably for the greater good. I respect america and her foreign policy even if they dont always get it right, they at least try to make the world better, unlike russia. I dont think north korea has proven that america was wrong to try to safeguard south korea...look at north korea today! I dont think the vietcong fared too well with the chinese...its why vietnam today is far more western oriented and american in free market culture than say communist chinese...its because free market and democracy are the best choice for people to have true freedom. America gets crapped on by many self loathers and jealous foreigners....but you still are a moral beacon...same as israel is, and THAT'S why we are , unshakeable allies. So again, the liberty was regrettable, but comes with the fog of war....kinda like when you use a drone to kill bad guys and you end up killing many innocents...it happens in war...its called collateral damage.
hey smokebrain...where you from? america? wasnt that indian?
where do you crawl out from? you're american? didn't you genocidally cleanse your lovely country of its rightful owners and stick them on reservations with little candy handouts ?
LOLOLOLOL
arguing with a raging hater is soooo simple. Its a shame you have zero ability to introspectively look at what you are, what you stand for, how you sound, your words, your anger, your hate....
I call them as I see them...you are everything I have described. There is not one word of sensationalism or exagerration. And for the record, I don't say jews are superior to any other group, or race or religion, but we are CERTAINLY superior to scum like you. Of that there is NO doubt.
;-)
We don't steal medical breakthroughs, we create them you moron. We didin't create barbaric incidents, we suffered from them and prospered DESPITE these despicable acts... of which you approve.
You are a seriously sick individual....able to lie so freely, as if you have zero regard for truth. Its quite psychotic. I really think you need help. For your own good kid, go get help. stop hating...stop being so jealous...its ripping you up. Your wasting your life being angry at things you were indoctrinatred to believe and which have always been false. Im sorry to break it to you...but you're living a life built on lies and hate...isnt that worth changing? you only have one life pigeon brain.
We don't steal medical breakthroughs, we create them you moron. We didin't create barbaric incidents, we suffered from them and prospered DESPITE these despicable acts... of which you approve.
You are a seriously sick individual....able to lie so freely, as if you have zero regard for truth. Its quite psychotic. I really think you need help. For your own good kid, go get help. stop hating...stop being so jealous...its ripping you up. Your wasting your life being angry at things you were indoctrinatred to believe and which have always been false. Im sorry to break it to you...but you're living a life built on lies and hate...isnt that worth changing? you only have one life pigeon brain.
... and maybe you could share with us your explanation of how that homicidal attack on a defenseless US Navy vessel, alone on the high seas and nowhere near any hostile naval vessels of any nationality, has been "dealt with properly." And you could explain how this sustained attack was "an accident," or just the "fog of war"? I wouldn't dream of contradicting you but I marvel at your irrelevant attack on the Chicago Tribune. You contradict yourself quite enough in your account of the crime against USS Liberty. The folks aboard the vessel at the time seem to think the affair was dealt with dishonestly by the governments of both nations.
Israeli claims they had given fair warning of their intentions were denied by the US ambassador to Israel and by the State Department. The US government claimed that Israel issued a mock "warning" only after its hours-long assault on USS Liberty had ended. And Israel fought tooth and nail for 13 years to avoid paying full compensation for its criminal action. The attack was in mid-1967, and final compensation was handed over in 1980.
The original "combat" involved attacks on Liberty by napalm, rockets, torpedos, cannon and machine guns. Boy, some accident, huh? Liberty defended itself with two brief bursts of machinegun fire some minutes after hostilities started. One of the torpedos made a hole 39 feet wide in USS Liberty, even though by this time, the motor torpedo boat group commander knew (as he later admitted) it was no warship. The US secretary of state formally reported after investigation that at all times "USS Liberty was flying the American flag and its identification was clearly indicated in large white letters and numerals on its hull. … [B]oth the flag and the identification number of the vessel were readily visible from the air…. Accordingly, there is every reason to believe that the USS Liberty was identified, or at least her nationality determined, by Israeli aircraft approximately one hour before the attack. … The subsequent attack by the torpedo boats [was] substantially after the vessel was or should have been identified by Israeli military forces."
Israel also looked into the matter. In a preliminary civilian report, Judge Yerushalmi ruled that he had not "discovered any deviation from the standard of reasonable conduct which would justify committal of anyone for trial."
The follow-up formal defense report acknowledged that IDF naval headquarters knew at least three hours before the attack that the ship was "an electromagnetic audio-surveillance ship of the U.S. Navy" but concluded that this information had simply "gotten lost, never passed along to the ground controllers who directed the air attack nor to the crews of the three Israeli torpedo boats." Too bad, huh? No suggestion that any member of the Israeli military was disciplined for the crime.
Of course, WALT, you can if you wish respond to these factual statements with your usual sniggers and insults. You don't seem to see that every time you do that, you make your case nastier and less believable. But feel free ... it seems your only trick. Are you employed by the government of Israel in any capacity?
. . that a re-elected Obama will deal with Israel with "benign neglect." Cut back aid drastically, shadow their nuclear weapons, including the subs and be ready to take them out if they do a Masada -- and let the place sink.
The place is already leaking Jews badly. The Palestinians are multiplying, and no sane person wants to live there -- and things will be much, much worse after the next war -- which is already underway.
They never will, be missed, never will be missed . . .
A very sad lot on here...neo nazis galore...
you gotta love these poor ugly misguided brownshirt skinheads...most of whom will end up in jail, with a million tattoos waiting for a shank in their side....its so laughable...so pitiable Actually. people of any stripe who advocate for the eradication of another people are sickening creatures...neo nazis are probably the dumbest people on the earth. Its no wonder the arabs sided with the nazis and the best part is that 70yrs later, their delusional and laughable neo nazi adherants are now siding with the arabs! birds of a feather.....LOL
It's clear from the low intellectual level of the Zionists commenting here -- name-calling, opponents are nazis, stupid, etc. -- that they've already lost the battle of ideas and are swept away like spoiled infants, throwing food from their highchairs and screeching.
The Zionists are the real neo-Nazis, and their ever-mounting racial hysteria gets more absurd all the time.
Israel's fascist government is the party attacking Jews.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/netanyahu-government-suggests-israelis-avoid-marrying-american-jews/249166/
Israel continues to offend and demean American Jews, many of whom are turing against the arrogant monster that presumes to speak in their name. The Knesset recently almost declared large number of American Jews to be goys -- Netanyahu headed this off at the last minute. Make no mistake, many Jews around the world are revolted by this state, which tries to create anti-Semitism in order to keep its flawed rationale for existence going.
Zionism is a long-discredited, racially based "blood and soil" 19th century idea. Zionists collaborated with the real Nazis because. like them, they believe that Jews are a "race" that's alien to Europe and America.
Why make everything about Israel and AIPAC?
Profit from global commerce is what built the American empire and the assurance of its future stability has always been the main priority of US foreign policy. The Asia-Pacific theater is becoming increasingly important in that regard, and the day will come when a Chinese trade war will have more disastrous consequences than a OPEC embargo.
As for AIPAC, Occam's Razor, people. The US is in the Middle East because of oil, first last and always. The alliance with Israel, though backed by many influential Americans, is of no greater consequence to current US policy than the oil-rich gulf states. The only difference is that the US public has a majority favorable view of Israel, and very low regard for countries like Saudi Arabia. While presidents can talk openly of the "special relationship" and receive standing ovations, they are forced to meet with Princes Abdullah and Nayef behind closed doors. While AIPAC can openly write checks to congressmen, Saudi functionaries have to use more roundabout methods to distribute cash.
Whether or not Israel is a "morally good" country or "deserves to be there" is completely irrelevant to this debate.. Why can't we just focus on the issues at hand?
Thank goodness Obama is moving on to the issue of economical security. The problem is there has been was going on in the Middle East for ages and it is very difficult for any president to think are going to come and change or stop what's going. We do have interest there in oil so it only makes to go over and talk, negotiate, do whatever you have to do with the Saudi's. I applaud Obama for what he is doing and what is on his plate. The Republicans are out to lunch on a I think its good we are switching our focus to China.
It seems as though America is great at starting things in the Middle East but terrible at getting out of them.
David Rothkopf is the CEO and Editor-at-Large of Foreign Policy. His new book, "Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry Between Big Business and Government and the Reckoning that Lies Ahead" is due out from Farrar, Straus & Giroux on March 1.
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