printable versionExperts lay out Obama's foreign policy challenges
'Efforts to restore confidence will not be easy,' Gerhard Casper says at Transitions 2009
BY ADAM GORLICK
Stephen Krasner, a professor of international relations, said not to expect dramatic changes in foreign policy under Obama’s presidency.
Stanford President Emeritus Gerhard Casper a constitutional law expert, critcized the Bush administration at the Transitions 2009 conference.
The self-described "skinny kid with a funny name" is now being called the "world president" in overseas headlines. But even as foreign leaders and opinion makers applaud Barack Obama's move to the White House, he'll have to wrestle with what many say is America's tarnished international reputation.
He won't be able to simply erase eight years of global embarrassments and missteps associated with the Bush administration. His plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility won't instantly wipe away the years of controversy it sparked, and the images captured at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq won't fade from international memory anytime soon. And a push to make Afghanistan the primary front in a war on terrorism won't make anyone forget about America's unilateral approach to waging war in Iraq.
"We have just lived with the most extraordinary claims to unbound power since the days of Richard Nixon," Stanford President Emeritus Gerhard Casper said. "And they will be present in the minds of many we have to deal with the world over."
Speaking Thursday during Transitions 2009, the Freeman Spogli Institute's fourth annual international conference, Casper—a constitutional law expert and FSI senior fellow—said the Bush administration eroded America's standing on the world stage by flouting the rule of law and ignoring the opinions of allies.
And he cautioned that the consequences could be dire. When it comes to solving international problems, American assertiveness is now more likely to be dismissed, he said.
"The fundamental problem is this: We have played the role of schoolmaster to the world throughout much of the post-World War II period," Casper said. "What has happened in the last eight years is that much of our standing to give advice on how to do anything has been diminished. Our competence has been questioned so deeply by so many that efforts to restore confidence will not be easy."
Stephen Krasner, the Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations and senior fellow at FSI and the Hoover Institution, agreed that anti-American sentiment is up and other countries' perceptions of the United States' competency is low. But that won't compromise America's overseas influence, he said.
"It will not matter if we have the same objectives as other countries," he said. "The great power relations will not change one whit under President Obama."
Whether they like the United States or not, too many other countries rely on America's military might, he said, adding that only a half-dozen of NATO's 26 members spend what they should on defense.
Krasner said China, Japan and South Korea will continue to engage with America, and he predicted no major shifts in the country's dealings with Europe, Russia and the Middle East.
"The United States is going to remain a global hegemon," he said. "Don't expect to see some kind of dramatic change in foreign policy with an Obama presidency."
But in order to be a dominant power, America will have to bolster its military and fix its financial crisis, Casper said.
"We don't have enough military might to conduct two relatively small-scale wars at the same time," he said.
"We have no money for anything," Casper said. "We have terrible schools, an infrastructure that's crumbling—I don't think we'll have much money to throw around to maintain our position as a hegemon."
Pointing to a cover of the German news magazine Der Spiegel that calls Obama "The World President," Casper said the president-elect's victory at least signals that the world is eager for the change he has promised.
"When we sit at tables negotiating and persuading others, we need to have standing," he said. "And that is our main resource to deal with things in the world, to persuade others we are right. We can do that again, but we have a long way to go to recreate the confidence."
