http://henryckliu.com/page182.html
Obama’s Politics of Change and US Policy on China By Henry C.K. Liu Foreign policy is fundamentally based on national interests that change only slowly and infrequently except under crisis situations. Still, even in normal times, electoral changes of administration inevitably bring changes in style and nuance in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy within a context of continuity. Yet the Obama administration has come into power at a time of unprecedented and severe global financial and economic crises that have profound implications in US national interests and US position in a changing geo-economic-political world order. Crisis conditions that are crying out for change are enhancing the new president’s ability to live up to his campaign slogan of “Obama for Change” not just domestically, but also in foreign policy. The question is whether Obama’s campaign for change can survive his politics of change. It is necessary to point out that Obama did not merely call for change for change’s sake, but for change that “we can believe in”. The campaign slogan of “yes we can” is soaked with ideological energy. It presumably means change that will reorder the systemic dysfunctionality that has built up in recent decades that has landed the world in its currency sorrowful state. It declares a commitment to more effective government to bring about a more equitable society at home and a more just world order internationally. The popular desire for change was the prime reason for Obama’s election victory. Yet, unfortunately, a more equitable society at home and aboard within a more just world order has not always aligned perfectly with US national interests historically. Clearly, a redefinition of US national interests is critical to the success of President Obama’s agenda of change. US National Interests The definition of US national interests was sharply distorted by the 2001 terrorist attacks of 9:11 in the first year of the George W. Bush administration. Foreign policy under Bush had been framed by an over-the-top militancy with two distinct characteristics: US unilateralism based on superpower exceptionalism and a transformational diplomacy agenda promoted by US neo-conservatism. This dubious militancy, as delineated in National Security Council document The National Security Strategy of the United States, released on September 20, 2002, a year after the September 11 terrorist attacks, has led to disastrous failures in US foreign policy on many fronts. These failures in turn have created not only an erosion of US observation of human rights overseas but also a decline of civil liberty domestically. This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm **************Need a job? Find employment help in your area. (http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=employment_agencies&ncid=emlcntusyelp00000005) _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
