REIMAGINING FOREIGN POLICY: Responses: Replies
Nossel, Suzanne
MY ARTICLE AIMS to identify a small set of foreign policy initiatives that could — be taken in the first few months of a new administration so as to begin to repair the damage to U.S. global...
...Although the groundwork should begin early, tangible progress in the form of proposals with a chance of winning domestic support will not come in the first hundred days...
...These are important goals for our next president to pursue...
...On the other hand, positive perceptions of the United States can make it possible for potential allies to support American policies that may be in their own long-term interest, but that have painful short-term political consequences...
...policies that are worthwhile and deserve international support...
...rOCUSING ON the first hundred days of a new administration, I am not sure I agree with Anne-Marie Slaughter that the key here is "one big idea...
...Stanley Hoffmann contends that the way to restore U.S...
...Change in these areas, however, will not occur overnight...
...Once this message has been received and U.S...
...Accordingly, President John Kerry should focus at the outset on carefully chosen measures, both symbolic and substantive, that promote goodwill and signal a sharp break from the unilateralism and militarism of the Bush years...
...But perceptions are not separate from reality...
...I also agree with Hoffmann's call for a radical reallocation of U.S...
...Without deliberate steps to counter the hostility, crude caricatures of American imperialism risk undermining even a new set of U.S...
...many countries and populations would prefer a world in which the largest military and economic power is isolated, resented, and unable to translate its influence into widespread support...
...It will require careful thought and planning, consultation across agencies and possibly allies, and bipartisan support for congressional action...
...I argue that the restoration of U.S...
...real changes in policy are necessary...
...But for the United States to lead this or other bold initiatives, it will need first to restore its legitimacy...
...But if America's stature is not rebuilt, a broad array of longer term policy objectives that depend on international cooperation—including combating terrorism and nuclear proliferation, stabilizing failed states and expanding democracy, as well as many of the other concerns raised by Mitchell Cohen and Stanley Hoffmann—may prove impossible to achieve...
...relationships are on the mend, the administration can expand its agenda, tackling problems and launching new initiatives with the backstop of international support...
...To lead effectively, the United States will have to accept that other countries will have a choice of whether to fol42 • DISSENT / Fall 2004 REIMAGINING FOREIGN POLICY low, and must therefore move in directions whose logic and appeal will not be limited to the United States alone...
...Such perceptions can—and have over the last two years—gained a momentum of their own...
...By using its initial months well, a new administration can position itself to build intergovernmental networks and to pursue other, bolder, foreign policy objectives including those outlined in my April 2004 article in Foreign Affairs, "Smart Power," where I argue for a sweeping revival of liberal internationalism...
...and no amount of "public relations" or "public diplomacy" will reverse the Bush legacy...
...global standing and influence wrought by the Bush administration...
...As Slaughter has persuasively demonstrated in her work, expanding the global web of intergovernmental networks could be key to tackling thorny new international challenges...
...if the way that foreigners perceive American behavior can fuel anti-Americanism, then it can also diminish it...
...Of course, the world will not be hoodwinked into trusting the United States...
...DISSENT / Fall 2004 n 43...
...global influence is by advancing policies that other nations can support on their merits, rather than worrying about problems of perception...
...After the Bush administration, they may be eager to see the United States as willing to reengage in international institutions that already exist, to rectify some of its own hypocrisies, for example in Iraq and at Guantanamo, and to do spadework on hard problems like Middle East peace...
...After Iraq, the world (and the American public) may need a reprieve from grand American plans and visions...
...Otherwise the effort risks being rejected as a "made in America" replacement for existing bodies—such as the UN's committees and specialized agencies (many of which cover topics similar to those that these intergovernmental networks might address)—that the rest of the world already participates in...
...foreign policy resources, and with Mitchell Cohen's related argument that economic development and poverty relief warrant much greater priority in a new administration than they have received under Bush...
...I agree with Hoffmann that American leadership should be focused on winning international support for our policies on their merits, rather than on trying to impose them by dint of our superpower status...
...alliances and its sway over world affairs are by no means a given...
...Some will perceive the United States as a global bully regardless of what we do...
Vol. 51 • September 2004 • No. 4
