Roguely Stated

In Sunday’s edition of Knoxnews.com, Thomas P.M. Barnett writes about Senator Obama’s recent comments regarding his willingness to talk with America’s enemies, as well as, what Barnett believes to be Obama’s larger point: that America needs to “reach out to the rest of the world again”.

On issue after issue, the international community comes together to forge new rule sets for this tumultuous era of globalization while the United States, in its infinite capacity for internal disagreement, is sidelined by our difficult occupation of Iraq, rising protectionist sentiment and know-nothing paranoia about a world we alone imagine to be infinitely more dangerous than the Cold War.

Barnett places America’s current policies in juxtaposition with some of the most important foreign policy issues facing the world today, such as the Doha development round of the WTO, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) lack of legitimacy without U.S. membership, the war in Iraq, strife in Africa, and global climate change. He goes on to question the utility of America’s de facto, self-imposed isolationism in the international system - a system created largely by American influence after the Second World War.

Add it all up, and America’s growing inability to talk with its friends, much less its enemies, seems to be isolating our country from a series of significant global realignments currently under way. So, no surprise that America polls globally just north of Kim Jong Il, while China’s charm offensive comes off like a clinic on soft power.

Equally important to Barnett’s commentary is the realization that while U.S. influence may be waning - even if that decline in influence turns out to be temporary - other countries will not sit idly by, waiting for the United States to rejoin the global community and provide leadership.

Depending on where you come down on the issues, Senator Obama may, or may not, have the right prescription to reverse America’s recent decline. However, it’s hard to argue with his diagnosis: The U.S. needs to reach out to the rest of the world again …and rejoin the conversation.

UPDATE 8/15: Obama talks about “preconditions for discussions”