Obama may find Europe reticent on some US goals

[Jaga]

President Barack Obama's first European trip could dampen his hopes that a new diplomatic style will convert once-reluctant allies into cooperative global partners.

From taking in Guantanamo Bay prisoners to sending more troops into Afghanistan's most difficult regions and spending their way out of economic crisis, European nations remain reticent about some of the toughest U.S. priorities.

Obama jets across the Atlantic on Tuesday on an eight-day, five-country trip that will be dizzying even by the usual peripatetic standards of presidential foreign travel.

He will attend international summits on complex, urgent topics — the global financial meltdown and the fight against terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He plans individual meetings with leaders important to U.S. strategic interests, from nations including Russia, China, Britain, France, Germany, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and India. Obama also will make his first stop in a Muslim nation, Turkey.

Wildly popular around the globe but relatively inexperienced in foreign affairs, Obama also will squeeze in a Buckingham Palace audience with Queen Elizabeth II, joined by his wife, Michelle; deliver a speech in France on the trans-Atlantic relationship and an address in Prague on weapons proliferation; and holding a round-table session with students in Turkey.

When Obama went to Europe last summer as a presidential candidate, he was received like a rock star and his welcome this time is expected to be no less enthusiastic.

Since taking office, Obama has made down payments on several campaign promises that had endeared him to Europe, such as addressing global warming, ending the Iraq war and closing the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Each had stoked acrimony toward former President George W. Bush.

www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1889512,00.html

[pieter]

Jaga,

I am curious how he will experiance the Europe of Independent Nations united
in a European Union. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars were and are not popular here,
and America is seen by many as the firebrand who started the financial crisis.
Europe like America is in turmoil, many people losing jobs, feeling insecure about
their future, and cut back on spending money, buying consumer goods and going
on Holidays. With the Global mass demonstrations and political polarisation and
disunity in Europe, with a Czech government that has fallen down it must not
be seen as an easy trip! The blind adoration of Obama is over here.

Europeans are looking very pragmatically and rationally what Obama's adminstration
does and which way his political, economical and miltairy strategy goes.
Like previous administrations he will have a tough time in gathering support for
more NATO contributions in the form of troop deliveries by his allies!

Pieter

[pieter]

english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/03/200932819492794451.html

[Jaga]

Obama was very successful in Europe. He is so much better than his predecessor.

www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1889512,00.html

Friday, Apr. 03, 2009
Barack Obama's New World Order
By Michael Scherer / Strasbourg

The United States is still the same country it was a year ago, give or take about 6 million jobs. But its international branding campaign, as led by the new President, Barack Obama, is so different that the rest of the world might be forgiven if it has to do a double take.

Most of the hallmarks of the foreign policy of George W. Bush are gone. The old conservative idea of "American exceptionalism," which placed the U.S. on a plane above the rest of the world as a unique beacon of democracy and financial might, has been rejected. At almost every stop, Obama has made clear that the U.S. is but one actor in a global community. Talk of American economic supremacy has been replaced by a call from Obama for more growth in developing countries. Claims of American military supremacy have been replaced with heavy emphasis on cooperation and diplomatic hard labor. (Read "Obama in Europe: Facing Four Big Challenges.")

The tone was set from Obama's first public remarks in London on Wednesday, at a press conference with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, where the American President said he had come "to listen, not to lecture." At a joint appearance with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Baden-Baden on Friday, a German reporter asked Obama about his "grand designs" for NATO. "I don't come bearing grand designs," Obama said, scrapping the leadership role the U.S. maintained through the Cold War. "I'm here to listen, to share ideas and to jointly, as one of many NATO allies, help shape our vision for the future."

On Thursday night, after the G-20 summit ended, Obama took so many questions from the foreign press, including British, Indian and Chinese reporters, that a group of them applauded when he left the stage. Two American reporters asked Obama for his response to the claim by Brown that the "Washington consensus is over." Obama all but agreed with Brown, noting that the phrase had its roots in a significant set of economic policies that had shown itself to be imperfect. He went on to talk about the benefits of increasing economic competition with the U.S. "That's not a loss for America," he said of the economic rise of other powers. "It's an appreciation that Europe is now rebuilt and a powerhouse. Japan is rebuilt, is a powerhouse. China, India — these are all countries on the move. And that's good."

At a town hall in Strasbourg, France, Obama stood before an audience of mostly French and German youth and admitted that the U.S. should have a greater respect for Europe. "In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world," he said before offering other European critical views of his country. "There have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive."

The contrast is striking. Only four years ago, George W. Bush, in his second Inaugural Address, described what he called America's "considerable" influence, saying, "We will use it confidently in freedom's cause." Bush's vision of American power was combative and aggressive. He said the U.S. would "seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture." He continued, "We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom."

Obama, by contrast, is looking for collaboration. He is looking to build a collective vision, not to impose an American one. And the response has been notable, from the endless flashbulbs that fired off at his town hall to the cheers of spectators who lined his motorcade routes and gathered outside his events in London. At the end of Obama's Friday press conference, French President Nicolas Sarkozy addressed the issue directly, speaking through an interpreter. "It feels really good to be able to work with a U.S. President who wants to change the world and who understands that the world does not boil down to simply American frontiers and borders," he said. "And that is a hell of a good piece of news for 2009."