Brookings: How We're Doing in the World

Brookings recently released its annual survey of how the U.S. is doing in the world, a series of indices for the last four years concerning foreign policy and diplomacy as well as global economics and development.  According to the survey, the United States has made considerable diplomatic progress under the Obama Administration in nearly all spheres, while global economic indicators have gotten decidedly worse across the board.  And while this shouldn't surprise anyone, the progress made over the last two years goes to show the enduring power of a cooperative and cordial international stance and good PR, and the statistics highlight several neglected issues.

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The Gift that Never Gives

Jeffery Goldberg doesn't like the trend he sees in Israel's foreign policy:

A pattern has emerged in recent weeks of an Israeli government that seems to go far out of its way to alienate countries it has no business alienating. First, there was the gross insult directed at the Turkish ambassador to Israel by the deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon. [...]

Then came the assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai. Israel hasn't claimed responsibility for the assassination, but evidence points to the Mossad. It is one thing to kill Hamas officials -- Hamas, after all, has declared a war of destruction on Israel -- but it is another to do so in the United Arab Emirates, the most open-minded country in the Gulf, especially on matters related to Israel, and a country that is obviously important to the formation of a broad, anti-Iran coalition. 

Then, of course, came the humiliation dealt to Vice President Biden on his visit to Israel, about which enough ink has been spilled. [...]

Then this week came a snub by Danny Ayalon's boss, Avigdor Lieberman, the foreign minister, who boycotted a speech to the Knesset by the president of Brazil because Lula apparently wouldn't pay a visit to the grave of Theodore Herzl, who is now spinning in said grave, because he was a pragmatist as well as a dreamer and he knew that the Jews, a small, embattled people, need friends to survive. [...]

Bibi Netanyahu is not in control of his government. He has brought into his coalition parties -- Lieberman's party, the Shas Party -- that are narrow-focused, excessively-rightist, stubborn and prideful, and now he's paying the price. The problem is that Israel is paying the price as well. America can afford stupid politicians. Israel can't.  

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China Diplomacy: Dalai Lama, Google, Taiwan, Trade

Everywhere you turn, the media is pouncing on the President's apparent rough start with China Diplomacy.  Having today met with the Dalai Lama fresh on the heels of a widely publicized Taiwan weapons deal, a feud over Google censorship, and an escalating trade war, President Obama has done nothing radical or out of the ordinary as far as U.S.-China diplomacy goes.  Rather, the current political and economic climates are stacked against the administration, and much of the rhetoric amounts to nothing more than muscle-flexing.  The Administration's dealings with China have been rooted in measured, compromised positions

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The Neverending Compromise: Israeli Settlements

One glaring failure in President Obama's first year is his attempt at a new peace process in Israel.  In fact, he failed several levels before that lofty goal when Likud Prime Mininster Benjamin Netanyahu resisted a settlement freeze that was just the opening bid for credibility.  After stonewalling for months while the Obama administration attempted to pressure him into a settlement freeze, Netanyahu then used the months of pressure as proof that Obama was only being tough on Israel and not on Palestine.  Finally, a one year moratorium on new construction "excluding projects in East Jerusalem, public buildings, and housing already under construction" was announced.  The Obama administration seemed content to move the scrutiny away from that situation, but once Hillary Clinton proclaimed the flimsy concessions as "unprecedented" the debate began anew.  That prompted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abba to announce his retirement.

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Could a Major Iran Nuclear Deal Happen?

I love that the snap consensus on nearly any foreign policy news of the day turns out to be lacking the nuanced information that the real players have.  When Obama announced that he was pulling Bush's plan for an Eastern European missile shield, the snap reaction was that it was done to placate Russia and gain leverage for sanctions on Iran and that it was a huge concession with no guarantee of results.  The reality turned out to be that not only was Obama barely changing the status quo on the missile shield - he still plans to have missile interceptors in Poland - but that rather than tougher new sanctions, the plan was a deal with important concessions on both sides and, despite the "setback" that Russia wouldn't agree to new sanctions - Russia plays a huge role in the deal.  It is creative diplomacy in other words, rather than a strict adherence to a failed plan.

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