Ever since I was a freshman in college, I have been an interested observer of foreign policy. In the old college bookstore - it moved at some point - I found a remaindered copy of Einstein on Peace, an edition of Albert Einstein's writings on matters pertaining to war, peace, international and supranational organization, and nuclear armaments running from the beginning of the First World War up until his death. While I didn't agree with much of what he wrote, and I agree that his attempt to defend some kind of supranational structure, especially in light of Stalinist Soviet adventurism was beyond naive, I found it refreshing to consider alternatives to the realpolitique that governs so much of our considerations of foreign affairs.
The intervening quarter century, however, has given me a greater appreciation for political realism in dealing with other countries. I do not mean the kind of realism epitomized by Henry Kissinger (and outlined in his too-long book Diplomacy in which, among other things, he reveals a serious man-crush on Josef Stalin). I mean realism as practiced by most countries most of the time. Our foreign policy has been driven, in my lifetime, first by Cold War lunacy and its near-kin of nuclear gamesmanship, then by a kind of empty-headed triumphalism (New World Order! Ronald Reagan Won The Cold War!), then by another kind of weird synthesis of the two (Nuke The Muslims!), with occasional forays in to Cold Warism (Boycott Cuba! Hugo Chavez Will Kill Our Men And Steal Our Women!) just to keep things interesting.
Bill Clinton's attempt to create a foreign policy driven by considerations of trade failed in the face of Republican intransigence and the notion that he was selling our sovereignty to China.
With the right out of power, we are slowly attempting to right the ship of State Department toward a more classically realistic approach to foreign affairs. This was epitomized this past weekend during the Summit of the Americas, when President Obama shook hands with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, which made heads explode all over the place. During the summit, Cuba's leader, Raul Castro, offered open negotiations with the United States even as the President said that travel restrictions to Cuba will soon be lifted (I look forward to a sojourn on one of Cuba's beaches in the near future). These are good first steps. Even as the President seems to be doubling down in Afghanistan - a few years too late, I believe - and keeping a wary eye on Pakistan and North Korea (without, in the latter case, getting too worked-up over a failed missile launch a couple weeks ago), he is moving at a pretty rapid pace towards making American foreign policy far more sane, and the United States a serious, credible international actor, rather than, as Noam Chomsky pointed out, the largest rogue state in the world.
One of the biggest obstacles toward a truly realistic foreign policy is the persistence of the idea of American exceptionalism. The last dregs of this farcical idea are still with us, and we need to toss them down the drain in order to deal with the world. We are no more some special case in world history than was the British Empire, the Spanish Empire, or any other imperial power. An accident of history, combined with an abundance of natural resources - that's us in a nutshell.
In light of my preference for a return to sober, mature realism in our dealings with other nation-states, I find it amusing to consider what Matthew Yglesias calls the "alternate reality" and "fever swamps" of the American right. I especially love the idea, in the first linked piece, that Argentina is in some manner, fashion, or form, an American antagonist. The move in Latin America toward various places on the social democracy continuum should be a welcome development, as is the attempt by Brazil, Argentina, and Chile to become far larger actors on the world stage even as their societies mature and move away from the pendulum swings of economic and political collapse and authoritarianism.
The marginalization of the kinds of nonsense we continue to hear and read from the American right is a good thing. Obama's adult approach toward the realities in the world is also a good thing. After a quarter century of really bad foreign policy, it will be nice to see how this unfolds.
