Time for Foreign Policy to Get Small Posted by David Shorr

Time to downsize our foreign policy aims, apparently. But wait, Greg Scoblete sees a problematic contradiction with the Obama administration's core principles:

Unfortunately, the administration can't "go small" (in Miller's words) if it continues to endorse the idea that only America stands between an orderly world and Hobbesian chaos.

Greg isn't so off-base about the premises of the current FP approach. I couldn't help noticing, though, the undertone of American leadership as self-flattery (nothing gets by me). So what about this threat of chaos? Overdramatic fantasy? Is all this talk about a "just and sustainable international order" really just national security strategy-speak for appointing ourselves as global saviors?

I don't think so. Check my logic here:

1. The biggest items on the agenda -- disequilibrium in the global economy, climate change, and nuclear proliferation -- are on a negative trend line, stemming directly for a shortfall in international cooperation.
2. These items are high on the agenda because the stakes are high and the consequences dire.

Diplomatic and political impetus from the United States is a critical factor in spurring a more serious collective international response. We don't have all the answers, but we're taking the questions seriously; if America pulls back, things will continue along their downward slide.

Chaos? Economic imbalances will eventually go completely out of balance. Ten nuclear-armed nations becomes 12, 15, 20... Violent political predators from Sudan to Zimbabwe go unchecked. Oh, and remind me what happens when the global average temperature reaches four plus degrees over pre-industrial levels? I don't think chaos overstates the case.

The real point is that the United States cannot by itself ward off this Hobbesian future. This is an appeal to other governments to join Washington as global leaders who step up to their responsibilities to deal with these challeneges. The test of international cooperation is a test of leadership. (BTW, I am aware of how civics book goody-goody I sound on these rants.)

Of course this begs the question, "what if they gave a shared global leadership and nobody came?" Actually, the FP wonk who's given the best sketch I've read of an incremental way forward is .. Greg Scoblete after last year's Copenhagen climate change conference. Back then I wrote how persuasive I found his this-will-be-a-slog depiction of international cooperation.

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Hey David,

1. You need to clean out this comments section - there are way too many nonsensical product ads here. Is there no moderation at the arsenal?

2. The government of the United States is responsive to and responsible for the people within its contiguous borders, not the welfare of the entire world. As globalization has lifted other nations to at least approximate the U.S. in terms of economic (eventually, military) clout, these nations will either accept a corresponding role in overseeing transnational issues like nonproliferation or they will be exposed to an ever greater risk from those issues.

It's in their own self-interest to handle international issues as their power (and exposure to such issues) increases. For this reason, it might be too alarmist to claim that U.S. retrenchment threatens transnational chaos.

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