Obama Lands in Europe to Convert His Popularity to Leadership

Last night in London, Barack Obama began his first international tour since assuming the presidency, needing to convert the enormous flow of popularity that accompanies him into practical leadership for a world in crisis. During the week, Obama will participate in three summits on economic, political, and security issues, and he will talk to a mostly Muslim audience in Turkey.

On this trip, the American president will tackle problems like the international recession, the war in Afghanistan, terrorism, or nuclear proliferation, that not only put into play his ability to maintain the predominant role of the United States on the planet, but also his credibility as a ruler in his own country. Few tours by previous American presidents have been linked more closely to the immediate problems of the majority of the inhabitants of the world or have awakened similar interests. The media attraction of the first black president coupled with a shortage of charismatic figures on this continent make Obama’s visit to Europe an unprecedented opportunity for hope.

But the mundane force of reality appears to intervene in the path from the first moment. The G-20 summit, probably the most important meeting of the tour, begins tomorrow among predictions of failure, or at least of insufficient achievement. The principal goal, the adoption of an economic stimulus plan on a global scale that the American administration, faithfully accompanied by its British host, faced at this summit, has not vanquished French and German resistance, and finally appeared to dilute itself in a vague declaration of intentions in the final statement.

Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had worked in favor of a compromise about precise quantities of public investment to boost growth by exact percentages of gross domestic product spending. “We don’t want a situation where some of countries are making extraordinary efforts and others are not”, declared Obama last week. The United States has put into action a stimulus plan of about 800 billion dollars and has asked the rest of the countries for approval of similarly proportioned packages. “We are going to London to demonstrate that America is leading by example”, the spokesperson of the White House, Robert Gibbs, has revealed.

Without a concrete agreement about economic stimulus, the other points of discussion at the G-20 are diminished. The approval of new regulation of the financial system, especially venture capital and non-banking institutions, would compensate only slightly for the lack of more categorical successes in the main sector. Washington has never been reluctant about these new regulations and to demonstrate it –“to lead by example”- last week the administration presented to Congress a series of measures to increase public control over this sector. Other advances, like the increase of contributions to the International Monetary Fund or the establishment of new limits on the activity of tax havens, would try to give content to a summit that was thought fundamentally to take urgent measures to tackle the global economic crisis.

Obama is not going to find a more receptive environment at the rest of the stops on the tour. With the presidents of Russia and China, with whom he will meet today, he intends to seek agreements about the economy-the meeting with Hu Jintao is already being called the G-2, the true economic summit-about the nuclear project in Iran, the scud antimissiles in Eastern Europe, and the threats of North Korea to launch a rocket.

The president of the United States will also encounter strong resistance to his plans at the NATO summit, scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Although different administration spokespersons, including Obama himself, have repeated that they are not attending this meeting so that allies send more soldiers to Afghanistan, the president has expressed his desire for better effort on the part of European countries to win this war, either through military instructors, civilian workers, or economic aid.

The tour will end in Turkey as a test of the “vital ally” role this country plays for the United States, according to an American official. Although Obama’s visit to Istanbul will coincide with the celebration of the second forum for the Alliance of Civilizations on the 7th, his agenda does not include participation in this meeting, despite being announced at the time by the Spanish government and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. On the other hand, Obama will hold a bilateral meeting with President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in Prague. The principal event of his visit to Istanbul will be a session of questions and answers with the youth of Europe and Asia.

After eight years of openly confrontational language and policy, it will not be easy for Europeans to become accustomed to an American leader who intends to be friends with the world. Obama comes with his duties done: the credit he gets for closing Guantanamo and condemning torture. As he, himself, has said, now is the time to listen to others.