America Is Backing Off So What Do We Do Now?

On June 28th, when the Honduran Parliament, High Court and military leaders decided to overthrow the arbitrary but democratically elected left-wing President Zelaya, they expected a repeat of the events of 2002. Seven years ago, a coup threatened to overthrow the Venezuelan president Chavez and the United States reluctantly acknowledged the legitimacy of the power change. But George Bush was the president all those years ago and the man in the White House today is a very different type of world leader. The differences between Barack Obama and George W. Bush were made clear from the outset, beginning with Obama’s speech in Cairo, in which the new American leader notified the world that the U.S. would not be continuing its policy of interventionism. Rather, foreign affairs and conflicts will be dealt with through diplomacy.

Honduran right-wing politicians quickly realized they had miscalculated. Not only did Obama reiterate his non-interventionist principle and his unwavering condemnation of the coup, the American government on the whole explicitly indicated their support for the democratically elected Zelaya. The U.N. quickly followed suite, immediately denouncing the revolt and declared unanimous support for Zelaya. The Organization of American States pressed for Zelaya’s return to power within three days. Happy with his worldwide support, Zelaya has already announced his intention to resume the presidency.

Most Americans expected Obama to deviate from Bush’s interventionist policies but certainly not this quickly. Conservatives continued their attack on Obama. Republicans are now asking why the Obama administration should choose to stand behind a president deemed unfit to rule by both the Honduran Parliament and the High Court; from their perspective, a neutral position is as good as approval for Zelaya.

The Europeans are similarly surprised at Obama’s new approach. After the controversial Iranian election, the new administration did not lean towards either party and merely reinforced the belief that the voices of the Iranian people must be heard. The U.S. has commented on the situation only from a human right perspective.

As a result, the outspoken British and E.U. governments became the unwitting leaders of the pack. Khamenei has begun to see “Evil Britain”, rather than the “Great Devil” of the U.S., as Iran’s number one public enemy. American television quickly latched onto this recent news- talk show host Jon Stewart excitedly jumped up and high-fived his stage crew on the Daily Show. Iran later detained 8 staff members of the British embassy, announcing that the E.U. is no longer qualified to participate in G6 talks regarding nuclear proliferation in Iran. An angry European Union is considering pulling out ambassadors to Iran.

America has truly changed and if nations around the world do not take this change seriously, then events like the miscalculated Honduran coup and the E.U.’s over-hasty denouncement of Iran will continue to occur. Visiting Russia, Obama called for a break with the Cold War mentality, asking to “reset relations between the United States and Russia.”

America is still the world’s only super power but it is a super power that has given up the role of the global policeman. It is more willing to influence international affairs through cooperation and diplomacy rather than brute force. Foreign Policy is but an extension of the country’s internal affairs and Obama is choosing to concentrate on the domestic crisis, giving America a little breathing space in the international arena. After all, the U.S. is still a long way from economic recovery, proper Medicare reform and a consensus on climate change. America cannot afford to embroil itself in a new predicament, but the resetting of its relationship with the world is going take some getting used to.