Obama the Unapproachable

Barack Obama takes little heed of old alliances, preferring to make cool calculations. The old allies are at a disadvantage: Europe is now hardly even considered.

The person fits the policies, and vice-versa: The course follows the personality. As cool and unflappable as Obama appears is exactly how coldly calculating he is in dealing with the world. Americans call loners who seem to have no home and appear to be temporary visitors everywhere “sojourners.” He’s forever friendly and pleasant, yet remains aloof and unapproachable. That will be demonstrated again in the Toronto doubleheader this week — first at the rich old boys’ G8 summit and then at the conclave of the world’s leading industrial and developing nations, the G20. Obama interacts with everyone but is close to no one.

After 17 months in the most powerful job on earth, Obama and his colleagues have yet to forge a friendship that rises above lukewarm with anyone. This lack of commitment in personal relationships is being reflected in America’s foreign policies. Obama has internalized how his nation has been weakened. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with the world financial and economic crises, have demonstrated the limits of American power. New players are gaining strength: Globally, nations like China and India have gained influence; regionally — as in Latin America or the Middle East — Brazil and Iran strive for dominance. So Obama extends his hand (not always successfully) to them, seeking an expansion or power through integration and cooperation. The new, radically pragmatic leitmotiv of world power is called “give and take.”

This new policy takes little note of old alliances or of any surviving sentimentality. Europeans — privileged NATO partners for decades — have sensed this. They sense this change in the weather as a cold snap, and they shiver. While Obama was able to awaken new sympathy among Europe’s people, a new complaint is arising in European centers of government: This President disdainfully values Europe only for its usefulness to him.

In the run-up to the Toronto talks, Obama’s negotiators brashly swept everything the Europeans had planned for financial market regulation off the table. Germany has been castigated as a parasite on the world economy. Simultaneously, Obama’s congressional Democrats are cobbling together legislation that will threaten even America’s closest allies with sanctions: Whoever trades with Tehran will be ostracized in Washington. Even in the Hindu Kush, Obama shoots first and asks for cooperation later: Naughty Stanley McChrystal wasn’t just an American general; he was also commander of NATO forces. America’s allies learned of his firing on the evening TV news. Europe breathed a collective sigh of relief when George W. Bush vacated the White House, only to learn that his successor is also looking for his own “coalition of the willing,” however that may be accomplished — even if it means something different every week.