These, days, advice for the next President is not hard to come by. Everyone seems to be urging the next President to tackle issue x or cause y. But some advice stands out more than others. In particular, the opinion of two respected voices in the field of diplomacy is worth mentioning:
First, in an article published in the Sept/Oct issue of Foreign Affairs, Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1999 to 2001, offers the next president some advice on how to confront the many challenges that await him in the realm of foreign policy.
Holbrooke outlines a monumental “To Do” list:
“…The next president will inherit a more difficult opening-day set of international problems than any of his predecessors have since at least the end of World War II.In such circumstances, his core challenge will be nothing less than to re-create a sense of national purpose and strength, after a period of drift, decline, and disastrous mistakes.
He will have to reshape policies on the widest imaginable range of challenges, domestic and international. He will need to rebuild productive working relationships with friends and allies. He must revitalize a flagging economy; tame a budget awash in red ink; reduce energy dependence and turn the corner on the truly existential issue of climate change; tackle the growing danger of nuclear proliferation; improve the defense of the homeland against global terrorists while putting more pressure on al Qaeda, especially in Pakistan; and, of course, manage two wars simultaneously.”
For the most part, the areas Holbrooke recommends that the next President work on are–surprisingly–domestic in nature.
“To make progress on this daunting agenda, the president must master and control a sprawling, unwieldy federal bureaucracy that is always resistant to change and sometimes dysfunctional. He will also need to change the relationship between the executive and the legislative branches after years of partisan political battle; in almost all areas, congressional support is essential for success….
…To restore the United States to its proper world leadership role, two areas of weakness must be repaired: the domestic economy and the United States’ reputation in the world. Although the economy is usually treated as a domestic issue, reviving it is as important to the nation's long-term security as is keeping U.S. military strength unchallengeable.”
I recommend reading on.
Second, Moises Naim, long time editor and Publisher of Foreign Policy magazine, also suggested that the next US President rethink US foreign policy from the inside out. In the recent article published in the magazine he edits, Naim argues that the next US President must fix the US’ many foreign policy double standards. He writes:
“Here is one suggestion for the next president of the United States: Ask for an audit of America's foreign-policy double standards. Just producing such a list will be a salutary exercise. It will not only show how long the list is, but it will also open the official explanations commonly used to rationalize the contradictions to renewed scrutiny and, in the process, reveal the economic interests or political passions behind them. Understanding the logic that sustains each of the double standards now in place will help in deciding which ones should be jettisoned. Some will emerge as untouchable (Saudi Arabia), while others will be revealed in all their obsolescence (Cuba). Hopefully, some of them will be eliminated.
Of course, reducing U.S. foreign-policy inconsistencies and contradictions will not eliminate the powerful waves of anti-Americanism that have always existed and that have crested in recent years. But it will certainly reduce the rhetorical ammunition available to America's critics. For free.”
As election day nears, I’ll collect more sage advice for the next President on how to cure America's foreign policy ills.
