Obama’s Diplomatic Whirlwind

As the leaders and media of various countries gathered in the U.S. in late September to the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council Meeting held in New York, and the G-20 Summit held in Pittsburgh, U.S. President Barack Obama was in the spotlight in his own country, forming a diplomatic whirlwind.

The reports and analysis that NBC and other American media ran for days expressed that Obama’s holding of the G-20 leaders’ summit in Pittsburgh (where the technology is more advanced, and the unemployment situation is not as serious as the other cities) and the series of publicity for the summit indicated that he had his sights set on the parliamentary re-election next year. That is to say that Obama’s dual roles as the diplomatic whirlwind this round and as president cum “chief campaigner” are complementary.

Gradually forsaking “hard power”?

Putting it this way does not take anything away from Obama’s bold ambition of creating a new world order. He suffered attacks from the traditional American rights and hawks on this point. The voice of the American Neo-conservatives, the magazine The Weekly Standard’s writer Steve Hayes commented on Fox TV on September 24 that Obama had forgotten his status as the president, and had put on a show on the United Nations’ platform and other international arenas, criticizing the U.S.’s past foreign policies. It was a dangerous performance on stage.

The conservatives thought that Obama’s creating of a new world order threatened the U.S.’s hegemony. For example, on the issues of nuclear weapons, since Truman’s dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima in 1945 in spite of objections from scientists, the U.S. has always had the arrogant attitude of “allowing the officials to light fires but prohibiting people from turning on the lights.”* Initially, the U.S. was unwilling to let other countries possess nuclear weapons. Later, it proposed “nuclear non-proliferation.” The Senate refused to approve of the “Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” but the White House waved “nuclear non-proliferation” in the face of other nations from time to time.

Now, Obama makes a 180-degree turn. He concurred with the U.S.’s World Security Institute’s president Bruce Blair’s “Global Zero Alert for Nuclear Forces” proposal, taking the opportunity of hosting the U.N. Security Council Summit to publicize this initiative, and to make the U.N. Security Council pass this initiative, which carries out the Resolution 1887.

Looking through the lens of America’s hegemony, one of Obama’s diplomatic strategies is to gradually give up the trump card that is hard power. When the threat of nuclear weapons is gone one day, this superpower will not be able to regain its power. From the perspective of world peace, however, taking drastic measures to stop wars by eliminating nuclear weapons is a light on the horizon for humankind. America’s moving toward this goal would be welcomed the world over.

The American media reported that Obama went to Pittsburgh to stage another diplomatic performance after basking in the spotlight for three days in New York. His three main performances were: holding a grand working dinner, the G-20 Summit, and condemning Iran’s secret construction of a second underground enriched uranium factory; together with the U.K. President Gordon Brown and French President Nicholas Sarkozy, issuing a final notice requesting Iran to halt its nuclear weapons development.

Superb diplomatic skills

The most typical example of Obama’s love for photo ops is a last-minute news release conference to condemn Iran. The Iranian enriched uranium factory that Obama had announced was information that the U.S. had in hand for three years, and it was not a secret at all. The leaders of the three nations in the know, namely the U.S., the U.K. and France, did not let out their steam during the discussion of the nuclear non-proliferation during the Security Council meeting, but had to make extraneous arrangements on time and venues, greatly dramatizing the issue.

At the close of the G-20 Summit, Obama said, “We’ve achieved a level of tangible, global economic cooperation that we have never seen before,” and “Our financial system will be far different and more secure than the one that failed so dramatically last year.” This is typical big talk from Obama, but then again, those are not empty words.

The Obama diplomatic whirlwind has changed the climate of international relations. When Obama talked about the “New World Order of Engagement” during his speech in the United Nations General Assembly, the September 24 issue of the New York Times commended him for dropping his bombast and bullying, which was not only welcomed by the rest of the world, but also challenged the international anti-American discourses. The commentaries quoted Obama as saying, “Those who have been criticizing the U.S. for acting arbitrarily cannot now sit and wait for the U.S. to solve the world’s problems alone,” indicating that the U.S. has already walked out of the unilateralism predicament that lasted eight years during the Bush administration.

Republican commentator Danny Dias said that President Reagan “sought (world) peace through (America’s) power,” but Obama “sought (world) peace through (America’s) weakness.” George P. Schultz, secretary of state during the Reagan and Bush Sr. administration, said that Obama has enabled the U.S. to regain its image during the Reagan era.

Not long ago, Obama withdrew his plans for guided missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, and exhibited his personal charm to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in New York and Pittsburgh, creating the impression that the two nations are more in line with each other on the Iran issue. He was also friendly with Chinese President Hu Jintao, and had worked well with the U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown. French President Sarkozy was also much better behaved than he was at the London summit in April. All these go to show how superb Obama’s diplomatic skills are.

*This is a Chinese proverb.

[Editor’s note: some quotes may be worded based on translated material].