DATE=12/21/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=YEARENDER: U-S FOREIGN POLICY - ONE
NUMBER=5-45073
BYLINE=ED WARNER
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
/// EDS: This is the first of two year-end
spots on U-S foreign policy ///
INTRO: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union,
America has been searching for a new foreign policy.
During the Cold War, containment was generally the U-S
response to Soviet expansionism. Though that policy
was often criticized by both the left and right, it
served as a rough guide, and in time, it succeeded.
What can replace it now in a much more complicated
world? V-O-A's Ed Warner asked four leading analysts
for their views on the foreign policy the United
States should pursue in the post-communist era.
TEXT: We are still trying to find a post-communist
strategy to deal with the world, says Michael
Mandelbaum of the Council on Foreign Relations:
/// Mandelbaum Act ///
No one has found a comparable framework or
simplifying assumption to the one that guided
American foreign policy during the Cold War -
namely, containment. Perhaps the closest to an
equivalent strategy or framework is
globalization, or trade. Certainly, this
administration has emphasized trade throughout
its term in office, but it does not quite fill
the gap left by the collapse of the Soviet
Union.
/// End Act ///
Mr. Mandelbaum says although trade might be considered
a kind of "junior containment," it hardly carries the
weight of that earlier policy.
Maybe we should abandon the search, says Joseph Nye,
dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University. No overall policy can cope with today's
global confusion:
/// Nye Act ///
There is not a clear and present danger as there
was during the Cold War. There is not one
dominant enemy, as there was with the Soviet
Union. The effort to reduce all the complexity
of foreign policy to a single slogan like
"democratization" or something of that sort is
probably misleading. We are going to have to
learn to live with a somewhat more complex
world.
/// End Act ///
Mr. Nye says the United States should probably follow
the example of nineteenth century Britain, which used
its global power to maintain an open economy and a
degree of order in the world.
Global stability now rests on American power, says
General William Odum, director of National Security
Studies at the Hudson Institute and a former Director
of the National Security Agency:
/// Odum Act ///
What I see is a world in which U-S power is
really dramatically larger vis-vis the rest of
the world than most people understand, much
larger than most American political leaders
understand. And when you add to it the
resources of NATO and South Korea and Japan,
then this alliance structure really is
hegemonic. And hegemonic not in an oppressive
way, but in a way that countries fight to get
into it. They do not fight to get out of it.
/// End Act ///
General Odum says today's hegemonic America has been
called an "empire by invitation." Others join
voluntarily. They are not coerced. U-S power serves
to spread liberal institutions around the world and
then to protect them. Military ties are an important
component of this.
Then why does the United States get involved in so
many peripheral matters? asks Ted Carpenter, director
of Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at Washington's
Cato Institute. He believes the lack of a strategy
has led the United States into conflicts it should
avoid:
/// Carpenter Act ///
The United States should focus on the major
developments in the international system that
could really affect our security and well-being
and not get bogged down in petty problems that
should be handled by powers in the region that
is affected. Becoming the baby-sitter of the
Persian Gulf, the baby sitter of the Balkans,
should not be in the job description of a
country as powerful as the United States.
/// End Act ///
Mr. Carpenter says the United States has its hands
full dealing with troublesome powers such as China and
Russia and should not go looking for trouble
elsewhere. (signed)
NEB/EW/JP
21-Dec-1999 10:57 AM EDT (21-Dec-1999 1557 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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