The shooting of Osama Bin Laden, President Obama’s latest foreign policy speech, and the looming drawdown of American forces in Afghanistan all point towards a welcome possibility: the sun may soon set on the War on Terror. And as Obama is acutely aware, America’s tomorrow is still to be written.
The death of Osama bin Laden is far more important for the United States than it is for Islamic terrorism. While the shooting of Al Qaeda’s leader will certainly damage the morale of would-be jihadists around the world, the most significant impact will be at home.
Gaddafi has long had form as a murderer. Neither Britain nor America have forgotten his role in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. With intervention, the West sends a clear message to all Arabs and those who rule over them whether despots or occupying states. To stand with those who want democracy can only ever be the right thing to do. As Tony Blair has said, the case for western intervention is as strong now as it has ever been.
Terror in the west of Sudan is far from concluded. Following the celebration of an apparently successful referendum for South Sudan, we should not forget the deals the Obama administration was obliged to cut so that voting could take place as scheduled, and what further deals will be required going forward to ensure the secession vote is respected by the Khartoum regime.
On 14 January 2010, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists adjusted the Doomsday Clock from 5 to 6 minutes from midnight in order to encourage progress seen around the globe in two key areas: nuclear weapons and climate change. Their decision was based on the perceived existence of a more hopeful state of world affairs. The clock had been adjusted 18 times since its initial start at seven minutes to midnight
Barack Obama and Gordon Brown were both reluctant warriors, boxed in by their respective military forces. Afghanistan was a war they both inherited, and at first underestimated, defining their position on it more by contrast to Iraq than on its merits. They realised soon enough that it was going badly. Casualties and costs were rising, the progress on development was stalling since 2001 and being overtaken by corruption, and public support at home was ebbing away
On 12th September 2009, hundreds of thousands of people gathered for a “taxpayer march” in Washington, DC. The Tea party has focused public anger at Obama’s reforms and forced the political establishment to take note in the run-up to the midterm elections. But is it any more than a knee-jerk response to a Democrat president? Perhaps those who will find life most difficult will be Republican moderates. In the age of the Tea party, the bad news is likely to keep coming, and a comeback for moderate Republicanism looks some way off
After 9/11, the word ‘hijacking’ has been used for two events. Of course, for the terrorist attacks of that day, but some also talked about a more metaphorical action: the hijacking of American foreign policy through the influence of a “neoconservative” or “democratic imperialist” movement
The international community must accept Iran’s nuclear program. This is not a desirable admission, nor is it a triumph for anyone, lest the Iranians themselves who would better off fixing their faltering economy.
It is wrong to say that Barack Obama rejects the democracy tradition in American foreign policy. His record, appointments and first-year budget requests show that democratization is not being jettisoned as a US goal. To varying extents, the president and his foreign policy principals are liberal internationalists. However there has been a stark rhetorical break from the Bush era.
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