The New U.S. Foreign Policy with Libya as an Example

We don’t know the outcome of the military action to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya and to protect civilians against attacks. It is noteworthy, however, and it develops before the backdrop of a new U.S. foreign policy. President Barack Obama laid it out in his inauguration speech; he described it later, in Cairo, in detail. Now it’s shaken by a conflict, which falls completely on the administration of Obama and Clinton. While Obama goes hesitantly forward, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, however, doesn’t bat an eyelash. Her speech on Saturday in Paris was a demonstration of that.

This action, compared with the foreign policy of the Bush administration, is like the difference between day and night — mostly because Obama and Clinton are the American leadership and the claim to power has separated. But he still must take the chance to restore the battered and destroyed image of the U.S. as a friendly ally. How will he attempt that?

1.) Since Ronald Reagan (and only temporarily suspended under Bill Clinton), the U.N. has been abandoned, neglected and marginalized. The Security Council, which the U.S. attempted to manipulate in the escalation to the Iraq war, will again be given a central role.

2.) First, the U.S. government recognized the Arab League as a partner, and with that it gives up the method of hegemonic (state/country) domination of the Arab word. That will pose major problems to the regime in Iran. And Israel.

3.) A military action could no longer be justified (like earlier mega-conflicts; see Vietnam, see Iraq) on false beliefs like the existence of WMDs or staged “attacks.” The attacks of Gadhafi’s soldiers on civilians are real, as was the non-compliance with the announced cease-fire. Obama has a solid moral ground for the intervention in North Africa.

4.) There is no difference between the U.S. on the one hand, and the French and Germans on the other hand; the rhetoric is de facto but barely “neutral,” the same rhetoric for which they always ridicule Austrians. Hillary Clinton has even praised the “leadership” of macho Sarkozy. Powerful chest-pounds in the Élysée-Palace were the result. And domestically it was politically advantageous.

5.) The wish of the Arab League would be answered with a break in the unity of the ground troops. But the U.S. and its partners also carry an important expertise, without which no one can win a war.

That French fighter jets flew over Libya at all on Saturday afternoon is a sign of a stronger West (also obviously for Russia and China), and of the accepted key role of the U.N. Security Council. Moammar Gadhafi has massively underestimated them, considering the council, together with the resolution, as a paper tiger. Now comes the real punch line.