Obama Says Farewell to the UN with a Defense of His Legacy and an Attack on Populism

In his final speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations, U.S. President Barack Obama defended his foreign policy legacy and his approach in responding to the great international crises, characterized, as he explained, by a deep belief in the functioning of diplomacy, in cooperation between countries and in multilateralism. It is an approach which both explains the great successes of his administration — the historic international agreement for the supervising of the Iran nuclear program and the normalization of relations with Cuba, for example — as well as his major failures, the paralyzed Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the impasse which has fueled the war in Syria for almost six years.

On the same day that various world leaders spoke in less than diplomatic terms about the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, after the collapse of a ceasefire agreement negotiated by the U.S. and Russia, and the worst bombing of a humanitarian convey, the North American president said he was disposed to give another chance to his diplomatic strategy because, as he repeated, “in a place like Syria, no military solution is possible.”*

Beyond a brief reference to the war in Syria, Obama enumerated other challenges and global concerns such as the proliferation of nuclear arms, condemning the recent “provocative” [nuclear] tests conducted by the North Korean regime; the expansion of fundamentalist groups and of regimes nostalgic for a golden era, definitions which fit the jihadi movements such as the Islamic State and Boko Haram as much as the Russian maneuvers on the border with Ukraine; and another concern, the Zika virus, which knows no borders.

The president counterposed the complex problems which he will leave pending when he abandons the White House with the “successes” achieved by his administration and the international community, such as the signing of the great Paris accord to combat global warming, or the concerted response which enabled the containment of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

But Obama used his most passionate tone in New York defending the principles of dignity, transparency, diversity and tolerance, whose respect involves a “course correction” in globalization movements, “as too often, those trumpeting the benefits of globalization have ignored inequality within and among nations.”** Along with defending these principles, Obama encouraged the rejection of “aggressive” recipes such as protectionism and nationalism. They are, he stressed, “a crude populism — sometimes from the far left, but more often from the far right — which seeks to restore what they believe was a better, simpler age free of outside contamination,” warning against the temptation of favoring “the strong man” and measures that call into question transparency and democratic institutions. “There appears to be [a] growing contest between authoritarianism and liberalism right now. And I want everybody to understand, I am not neutral in that contest,” Obama reflected.

The president of the U.S. also asked the leaders in New York to “reject all forms of racism and fundamentalism” and most of all to avoid “a darker and more cynical view of history” which foments division and violence. “Each of us as leaders, each nation can choose to reject those who appeal to our worst impulses and embrace those who appeal to our best,” he suggested. Without naming names, Obama criticized leaders who seek legitimacy “not because of policies or programs but by resorting to persecuting political opposition, or demonizing other religious sects.”**

“Today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself,” he emphasized.

*Editor’s note: This quotation, accurately translated from the article, is a paraphrase of President Obama’s exact quote in his speech to the United Nations.

**Translator’s note: This is not an exact translation of the author’s original quote or translation of the UN speech, but it is an exact quote from the text of Obama’s final speech at the UN.