Obama Rolls Out His Picks...

Remember our first class? When we hadn't elected President #44 yet? Seems like forever ago. Here we are now with a President-Elect (or as I like to say, P-Elect) and our curiosity about the elections and foreign policy has been answered to some extent. Time flies!

Anyway, the NYTimes has an article about P-Elect Obama's Foreign Policy team that he'll be announcing Monday (I think?). Find it here:

A Handpicked Team for a Foreign Policy Shift

Nothing too surprising in terms of who Obama has chosen to be a part of the team -- rumors/leaks have been floating around for some time -- though I do appreciate the article's thoughtful point about funding. To build a larger civilian force, to expand foreign service, to shift foreign policy in a meaningful way -- you're going to need some cash. Where's it going to come from? Wherever it gets reallocated from, I hope this aspect of Obama's foreign policy plans gets enacted. I've always hoped for a prominent voice in foreign policy to propose more support for rebuilding and reconstruction alongside our military endeavors. I'm also a fan of Gates' quote in the article about the sorry state of America's "soft power" that was so key during the Cold War.

Also interesting: Obama plans on elevating Ambassador to the U.N. to cabinet level a la Bill Clinton. Thoughts? I'm a fan -- the U.N. could use a symbolic self-esteem boost at this point. I'm also curious to see how his choice of foreign policy team and U.N. ambassador will impact the political will around action regarding Darfur. Mainly, will it impact the current approach to Darfur? And if so, how? It is such a complex situation, will an increase in political will be enough to stabilize the situation and end the conflict? We'll have to wait and see.

Comments

[Emily Ng]

The stress on post-conflict reconstruction in Susan Rice’s own expertise, and in the general Obama approach to foreign and security policy, is very timely, and not only because of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Some interesting sites on this include:

http://www.csis.org/isp/pcr/

http://www.iiss.org/conferences/global-strategic-review/global-strategic-review-2008/keynote-address/

and across the pond - http://www.stabilisationunit.gov.uk/

At this time when Keynes is flavor of the month in economic policy, it’s interesting to think how far our approach to post-conflict reconstruction has come since, at and after the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, he had to argue against a veangeful “peace” (on this, see J M Keynes, “The Economic Consequences of the Peace”, 1919, and D Markwell, “John Maynard Keynes and International Relations”, 2006).