The European American Instituted hosted one of the most impressive panels on international relations I have ever attended.
The panelists: American Ambassador Richard Holdbrooke, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, Former Bosnian Prime minister Zlatko Lagumdzija, the French Ambassador to the US, the former Prime Ministers of Chile and Norway, a Russian professor, and others.
The topic: How can we restore confidence in American Leadership in the world?
How can we repair the current dissonance between America and its allies?
The broad consensus: America will lead when it works in cooperation and consultation with its friends. The Bush Administration’s bullying attitudes of “My way or the high way”, and the “Coalition of the willing” and the “pre-emptive strike” policy of the United States as expressed in Iraq, are only going to cause long-term problems for both the US and the Western Alliance.
We clearly need a new direction.
There was also a pithy discussion between Ambassador Holdbrooke and the Russian professor about: Why are Russian troops in Georgia, and what are Russia’s true intentions? Has America responded correctly? Did US provocations by placing missiles in Turkey and Poland lead to the crisis? Is the proposed expansion of NATO to include Ukraine and Georgia a mistake? Are we heading toward a new cold war?
Consensus was not reached.
Most impressive: ALL of the questions from the audience came from members of Democrats Abroad, mostly people who live in the countries affected. One after another, DA members stood up, said they were from DA __ and DA___, and asked probing and knowledgeable questions. The question/answer period was extended 20 minutes to fit them all in. The questions were of a very high quality, and showed that DA members understand and care about international relations.
Bob
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1 comment:
"Why are Russian troops in Georgia, and what are Russia’s true intentions?"
Russia seems to have reverted to old WWII tactics yet not without cause, to be fair. Missiles to be built in Poland are no differnet than Soviet missiles in Cuba.
And one has to look at U.S. intentions; maybe they are allying themselves with Georgia in the belief they can weaken Russian hegemony in that part of the world.
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