COVER: Obama Abroad. An Emerging World View. Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria writes that in the realm of foreign policy, Barack Obama has been made out to be a softheaded idealist. John McCain and his campaign, conservative columnists and right-wing bloggers all paint a picture of a liberal dreamer who wishes away the world's dangers. Zakaria disagrees. "Over the course of the campaign ... Obama has elaborated more and more the ideas that would undergird his foreign policy as president," he writes. "What emerges is a world view that is far from that of a typical liberal, much closer to that of a traditional realist. It is interesting to note that, at least in terms of the historical schools of foreign policy, Obama seems to be the cool conservative and McCain the exuberant idealist." Zakaria adds that McCain is a pessimist about the world, "seeing it as a dark, dangerous place where, without the constant and vigorous application of American force, evil will triumph." To Obama "countries like Iran and North Korea are holdouts against the tide of history. America's job is to push these progressive forces forward, using soft power more than hard, and to try to get the world's major powers to solve the world's major problems."
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As part of the cover package, ten international writers, professors and government officials contributed essays on how their country would view an Obama presidency.
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-- Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at
-- Dominique Moisi, senior adviser to the French Institute of International Relations, writes that Obama should know how much he is loved in France. (85 percent of Frenchmen would vote for him, according to one poll). "You not only incarnate the best of America but give us hope for the full integration of our own black and Arab citizens."
-- Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of Die Zeit in Hamburg, writes that Obama can change the tune of U.S. foreign policy. "But he can't get rid of the brass and the kettledrums, so when he visits, he might gently prepare Berlin for the dissonances to come."
-- Tom Segev, Israeli historian and a columnist for Haaretz writes, that when Obama arrives in Israel, he'll find Israelis are as eager for change as his supporters at home. And that most Israelis "feel deeply dependent on America and will not risk major policy differences with the United States. That means Obama may find them open to a new, more rational approach to the Middle East conflicts."
-- Marwan Muasher, the former foreign minister of Jordan and author of "The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation," writes that Obama, while in the Middle East, should begin a candid dialogue and to learn about the area's aspirations. "As you rightly articulated, the United States' approach to the Middle East needs to be reoriented."
-- Ali A. Allawi, Iraq's minister of Finance from 2005-06 and author of "The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace," writes, "Obama should realize that the picture of Iraq he'll get from meetings with military commanders, U.S. diplomats and senior Iraqi leaders will be incomplete, offering him only a glimpse of the country's true conditions."
-- Ashraf Ghani, the former Finance minister of Afghanistan and current chairman of the Institute of State Effectiveness, writes that Washington and Obama should recognize that Afghanis are "frustrated by the waste and lack of transparency in the international aid system ... Growing violence, especially civilian casualties (many inflicted by international forces) are making us feel less secure. So are rising food prices and a youth-unemployment rate of 40 to 60 percent."
-- Michael Anti, a Chinese political blogger and Nieman Fellow at
-- Shekhar Gupta, editor in chief of The Indian Express, writes that the first thing Obama needs to know about India is that he doesn't need to fix America's battered image there-and it is a big reason he should have included India in his travel plans.
-- Luis Fernando Verissimo, a Brazilian journalist and author, writes that if Obama came to Brazil-and he should-they would impress him with their bigness in everything. "We might even cause him to ponder just what all this bigness and ambition means for the United States."
Mediterranean Bridge Building. Special Correspondent Eric Pape reports on French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent actions between France and Israel. Until very recently, France and Israel have had bitterly difficult relations. But Sarkozy has changed all that by very publicly embracing the Jewish state. He takes every opportunity to reassure Israel, whether on Iran's nuclear ambitions or by calling talk of a politique arabe "nonsense," as he did in his 2006 political book "Testimony." Last month Sarkozy lauded the universal values of Judaism in a speech before the Israeli Knesset. Sarkozy used the occasion to tell Israel: "The French people will always be [there] when your existence is threatened."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/147680
BOOK EXCEPT: "Stalin's Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival." In this book excerpt, Moscow Bureau Chief Owen Matthews writes about his family's experiences while living in Russia and the effect on his life there now. "Twenty-six years after my mother finally left Moscow to marry my father, I moved in the opposite direction, back to Russia. For much of my time there, I thought I was in a story without a narrative, a constantly changing slide show of phantasmagoria that Moscow was projecting onto my life for my personal delectation. But in fact ... I have found myself, time and again, tripping over the roots of experience that I shared with my parents and grandparents."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/147688
WORLD VIEW: Poisonous Relations. In the last eight years, Russia has had serious rows with almost half of the EU's 27 member states. Contrary to popular opinion these have affected both longtime members of the EU and new, write Andrew Wilson, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and Mark Leonard, executive director at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "Indeed, it seems that too often Russia has been able to punch above its weight by using underhanded divide-and-conquer tactics-while Europe has failed to recognize that collectively it is much stronger than its members are when they act alone ... Europe needs to figure out a way to come together to fight back."
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THE LAST WORD: Marc Sageman, author, "Leaderless Jihad." Sageman says he focused on the dynamics of small groups, like the leaders of the 9/11 operation who were in Hamburg, and not on the overall leadership of Al Qaeda. "I realized it was a bunch of guys that got together and wanted to do something. They were all very enthusiastic and not just passive recipients of other people's orders. They generated their own ideas. They went to Afghanistan looking for Al Qaeda, and when they connected, then Al Qaeda gave them some direction."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/147690
SOURCE Newsweek
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