April 10, 2008
Town hall meeting examines America’s image problem abroad
Lee Feinstein, left, John Lehman, center, and Richard Danzig discussed foreign policy at the town hall meeting. (Photo by Jeff Watts)
With U.S. popularity at alarmingly low levels in many spots around the globe, the world’s perception of the country has become a hot-button issue on the presidential campaign trail.
High level foreign policy advisors to the three presidential candidates gathered at the Kay Spiritual Life Center Monday night to discuss “Foreign Policy and the Presidential Election: America’s Image Problem,” a special town hall hosted by WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi and former CBS and NBC news broadcaster Marvin Kalb, the Edward R. Murrow Professor Emeritus at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
“Just about everyone you talk to who comes from overseas talks about how our image is, perhaps, worse than ever,” Nnamdi said. “U.S. actions and rhetoric are often perceived as arrogant and unilateral.”
But just what tangible effect—if any—does this have on American interests and foreign policy? It’s a question each of the panelists approached in a different manner.
“Since World War II and the afterglow, we’ve never been terribly popular,” said John Lehman, foreign and defense policy advisor to Sen. John McCain’s campaign. “There’s a certain amount of envy, and a lot of hidden admiration. It’s not the role of the premier power to win a popularity contest. There’s no question that the unilateral policies of the United States have given cause for some to lose admiration. After the awesome show of power initially in Iraq, what followed was a series of blunders. We have to win back the respect and admiration of fair-minded people, but we shouldn’t be trying to please everyone.”
Lee Feinstein, national security director for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign said the United States now lives in a world in which other countries want a louder voice in how global problems are addressed.
“It does really matter how you’re viewed,” said Feinstein, who served in senior positions at the State and Defense Departments under President Bill Clinton. “The kinds of challenges we face we can’t face alone.”
Richard Danzig, senior foreign policy advisor to Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign, believes his candidate can “speak to the world in a way the other candidates cannot.”
“I’ve seen in my travels very strong personal resentment to this president and the policies he has been pursuing,” said Danzig, who served as secretary of the Navy under President Clinton. “But I think people can distinguish between Americans and America. The ability to maintain our moral standing in the world is very important. I think all the candidates would say the damage to us in situations like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo is huge.”
Throughout the evening, Iraq consistently emerged as a major cause of U.S. unpopularity. What to do about the situation moving forward, however, is much less clear.
“I wouldn’t let the image in the world dictate our policy on Iraq—it’s way too important,” said Lehman, who served as secretary of the Navy under President Reagan. “McCain has been an incessant critic of the administration for pursuing a policy that could not succeed. He was appalled by the dismantling of the [Iraqi] army. Finally he got a notion of the strategy he had been recommending, providing security for the people of Iraq. It can be very effective.”
Danzig disagreed with that course of action, arguing that remaining in Iraq simply will continue to harm the U.S.’s reputation in the region.
“The narrative has always been that the United States wanted to occupy these lands,” he said. “The invasion of Iraq is something that plays into that narrative. One of the things Sen. Obama has said is we have to be as responsible leaving Iraq as we were irresponsible going into it.”
Feinstein sought to highlight differences in how Clinton and Obama would approach conducting personal diplomacy. Obama, who leads Clinton in delegates heading into the crucial Apr. 22 Pennsylvania primary, has said he would meet with leaders of countries openly hostile toward the United States, such as Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while Clinton has said she would not.
“She outlined a proposal for a regional security conference including all the states bordering Iraq,” he said. “We have to have courage to do diplomacy with our adversaries and the wisdom to do it right.”
As the event, cosponsored by WAMU 88.5, the American Interest magazine, and America Abroad Media, drew to a close the panelists struck a hopeful tone, each saying they believe American popularity throughout the world can be restored—and their candidate is just the person for the job.
“America is rich enough and strong enough to be able to be generous to the world,” Danzig said.
