The Philosopher Who Obama Admires

Admiring Neibuhr

President-elect Obama, who has adopted the slogan of ‘change,’ is said to respect Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). This is as surprising considering Obama’s landslide victory in the presidential election.

Niebuhr was a father of realism and his theories are very similar to thoughts of the Realist-Centrist Republicans. As a theologian, he pointed out that Christian insight can work in modern world and severely criticized left-wing liberalism.

Mr. Obama was thought to be closer to Democratic Liberals, but he let out that he is a follower of Niebuhr, and even used his philosophy as a guiding principle for his speeches.

According to Miki Kato, a visiting researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, the person who first found out Obama’s regard for Niebuhr was David Brooks, a columnist for the “New York Times” (April 26th last year).

Niebuhr stressed that sinful men rely on the good faith of God and sought to establish Christian-based social ethics. After World War II, he participated in government as an adviser to the State Department. He thought that the use of force would imperil oneself as well as others and endorsed realistic diplomacy. His strategic argument was to avoid making strong nations your enemy while recognizing the America’s limit of power.

International Political Science in the U.S. has two giants who looked up to Niebuhr as a teacher. One was Hans Morgenthau, who explained the balance of power by analyzing power politics, and reigned as theoretical leader of Realist Politics. Another was George Kennan, who was known as the father of containment policy against the Soviet, and a theorist of the liberalism camp during the Cold War. They both warned American politicians not to show off morality by advocating unrealistic interventions, and to get rid of diplomacy that is manipulated by domestic politics.

Obama’s Realist Lineage

This school of thought was carried on by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who worked under the Nixon administration. He directed reconciliation of the Sino-American relationship as a ‘China Card’ against the Soviets in diplomacy game and brought the Vietnam War, often called the loss of idealism, to an end. The National Security Advisor under George H. W. Bush, Brent Scowcroft, succeeded him.

Under George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell was a part of the family tree. He was exhausted by opposition from the conservatives on progress in the beginning of Iraq War and left the administration. He is a Republican but turned around to support Mr. Obama, suggesting that he was bipartisan.

The “Economist” of the U.K. argued that Mr. Obama’s logic is surprisingly as conservative as Mr. Reagan’s, which makes sense if Mr. Obama is in Niebuhr’s camp. On first sight the main candidates for the new Obama administration are conspicuously realist.

Current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has a link to the Scowcroft group, while incoming Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner and Commerce Secretary Bill Richardson belong to a think tank run by Mr. Kissinger.

In the relationship with Russia, who invaded Georgia, Mr. Obama said calmly that Russia is “neither our enemy nor our close ally” and the U.S. “shouldn’t shy away from pushing for more democracy, transparency and accountability.” It echoes Niebuhr’s theory that states not to make strong nations our enemy recklessly.

Mr. Obama has denied he wants to deploy missile defense systems in Czech and Poland. He does not seem in a rush to extend NATO membership to Georgia and Ukraine. Perhaps he is waiting patiently for Russia to be a respectable country, a falling ripe persimmon, given the declining oil price. He also expressed an understanding of the removal of North Korea from the U.S. terrorist state list, saying there has been some progress.

A Snare of the Strategy to Make no Enemies

However, there is a trap in this cooperation policy. It would send the wrong signal that a corrupt state whose leader is an extreme believer in power. If Russia and the North Korea interpreted Mr. Obama’s policy, “change,” as weakness, they may persist in a strong anti-America policy. In domestic politics, if Mrs. Clinton were entering the new administration in order to avoid making her his enemy, it would be counterproductive to let her have her own way.

If Mr. Obama is a true realist, he would not deny attention to these nations. It would not be a plus if high-level officials in the Japanese government paid a visit to Mr. Obama without fulfilling their role as a close ally. No longer can they deceive the U.S. by saying we adapt, but do not use collective defenses.

Will President-elect Obama adopt a realist line, to proceed, with courage and calm — which Niebuhr’s famous “Serenity Prayer” mentions — and wisdom to distinguish one from another?