Le Monde, France

Tomorrow’s America and Us

By Daniel Vernet

Translated by Noga Emanuel

February 05, 2008

France - Le Monde - Original Article (French)

At 89 years of age, former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt still commands respect as an alert and attentive observer. When his writings appear on the front page of Die Zeit, in which he serves as one of the editors, the weekly paper’s sales are boosted. Last week, Schmidt addressed a kind of an open letter to the presidential candidates in the USA.  Entitled  "What can the world expect from you?", the letter posed twelve questions regarding the future

Even though Helmut Schmidt had read all the lengthy essays that the leading hopefuls published in the journal “Foreign Affairs”, he did not find in them convincing answers. Even American political analysts are divided. Those who are closest to the Republican side think, like George W. Bush, that it will be more of the same. The American president, having read the biographies of his predecessors at the White House, suggested  an analogy with the Truman-Eisenhower time, to a number of invited guests. George Stephanopoulos, a former Bill Clinton aide, reported:  "Bush believes that, whoever succeeds him, while he or she may have criticized his policies during the election campaign, will continue on the same direction, once elected",

Not at all, demurs John Kornblum, another diplomat of the Clinton era. The United States will follow a new foreign policy "whoever the winner is", because the Bush policy "is a departure from American normalcy ".  Never mind that historians question the Truman-Eisenhower continuity theory.

If we follow Helmut Schmidt’s example and read the essays about foreign policy written by the four candidates who went into "Super Tuesday" - Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democrats, John McCain and Mitt Romney from the Republicans, we can recognize two constants. First, a thread of explicit or implicit criticism of George W. Bush’s actions. Even John McCain, who supports the war in Iraq, highlights the "errors of recent years", the insufficient numbers of committed troops and the unrealistic goals.

The second constant relates to the question of American leadership in the world. The definitions applied by the candidates for the White House may vary in language, but all four of them regard the United States as a "unique nation" (Mitt Romney), which "must lead the world by deeds and by example" (Barack Obama). Because "the world looks to American leadership" (Hillary Clinton), whose form is "unique, the very antithesis of empire" (John McCain).

In marked contrast to the current president, they all press for underpinning traditional alliances, because, as Barack Obama avers, "America cannot face all alone the threats of this century, and the world cannot face them without America”. The two Republican candidates endorse the idea of a new alliance of democracies, which according to John McCain, will not "supersede the UN but rather complement it".

The European Union, as might well be expected, is largely absent from these deliberations, as Americans are looking toward China. The most important bilateral relations will be with China, thus affirms Hillary Clinton.

The traditional and simplistic disagreement between the so-called "isolationists" and the so-called "internationalists" no longer pertains. No candidate recommends that the United States withdraw into themselves by way of curing the external activism of the last years. Instead, the quality of prudence is offset as the desirable course. Before his election in 2000, didn’t George W. Bush also extol the virtues of American humility?