The multilateral shift in US foreign policy

First, Barack Obama's inaguration speech. Then, Secretary Clinton's confirmation hearing statement. After that, Obama's Prague Speech, and Cairo Speech.A few months later, Clinton's speech to the Brookings Institution a week before the UNGA.Then, Obama's speech at the UNGA.US drafted UN resolution on Nuclear Weapons.

However, questions remain:
Avoiding false multilateral choices
Treaties or informal multilateralism?

Terrible thing, Politics.

Had a very interesting day today. Met three characters:

1. Lifelong Civil Servant: He works for the state department. He is a bureaucrat. He says he loves his job but he also talks of how he is merely a participant in a very big organization. He merely proposes policy. He neither decides on their viability nor does he implement them.

2. Security strategist: His great confession was that he would torture if it meant that he would be able to save lives of many more people.

3. Journalist of a troubled foreign nation: He considers himself a traitor to his nation as it stands now. He would rather that it break apart to be able to rejuvenate itself in modernity.

Lesson taken from the three stories : Be careful if you want a career in international politics. You will have to make many hard choices, which will usually be against your perceptions of personal morality.

In defense of International Realism : Excerpt from an assignment

An international realist foreign policy will preserve American national interest through the prudent application of power. The American national interest as it stands in international realist interpretation is the preservation, not overextension of American power.

Realism defines power as the ability to make others do what they would normally not want to do. An international realist foreign policy recognizes the power of two realities in the international system: Globalization,and Nationalism. International Realism recognizes that in an international system characterized by both continuity and transformation, a prudent application of power will determine the successes of foreign policy.

An international realist application of power will include the use of three instruments of national power. These three instruments of national power are: 1) Military hard power, 2) Diplomacy, 3) The soft power of cultural attraction.

Power will be used to preserve the status-quo in the Global system. The status-quo is defined as the acceptance of the American position in the Global System without the pronouncement of its absolute exceptionalism. The goal is unilateral in that it focuses on the preservation of the American national interest. However, the means used may include all approaches deemed necessary under the duress of the context.

The acceptance of power as a means does not include the debate over intentions. International realism defines power in the material and not in the moral. Morality is normative and even when noble, a foreign policy based on moral intentions and the supremacy of a moral idea will lead to disaster. One may only use the failures of Napoleon, Wilson, and the second George Bush as examples. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, intentions may be moral but if the end is not successful, a thousand angels swearing for the foreign policy will do nothing to reconcile its failures.

Foreign Policy: What is at stake?

When one is a foreign policy student, one learns about the glories of Otto Von Bismark, and the grandiose history of the Second World War. One also learns of the reapproachment with China, and the dramatic end of the Cold War. In all of this high drama, one may forget that foreign policy decisions can destroy property and take lives. The seminar professor's priorities were to teach us students of this obvious fact. Therefore, he gave us an assignment to find out as much as we could about a name of our choosing from the Vietnam Memorial. He also took the students to the Holocaust Museum where we had our first seminar.

When one hears of the debate regarding Iran's Nuclear Program, or the relationship with Russia, one needs to understand that these debates are not merely for fun. These debates should have a purpose: to save lives.

Internship

I am happy to report that I now am an intern with the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.The ADST prepares "country readers", which are basically background material developed for US Ambassador designates through a process that includes interviews with diplomats that served in that particular country in the past.

In my position as an intern, I will update the country readers. I will also prepare thematic readers drawn from the oral histories on selected topics, e.g., human rights, embassies in crisis, diplomatic negotiations, and leadership in the Foreign Service. I will also carry out research and editing as part of ADST’s work facilitating publication of diplomatic memoirs and histories. Finally, I will edit and transcribe interviews with returning members of Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is part of a “lessons learned” project that ADST is undertaking for a U.S. Government inter-agency group concerned with making the PRTs more efficient and effective.

In a pleasant coincidence, I happened to start work on Tuesday, which of course is when most capitol hill interns start their assignments.

Books, Library, and Research

This may be a little personal but here is a picture of my desk with all the things necessary for academic success in DC. 1) Books (more will be added soon), 2) Maps to help one be familiar with the city, 3) Laptop (absolute necessity for obvious reasons), 4) Sticky Notes (because memory is not reliable), 5) Legal Pads (Same reason as 4).

Books and Research:
There are four books in the seminar class. The total cost of purchase comes to around $180.00.I will need more books for the research project. Fortunately, the library at American is very extensive and I may not have to buy any more books. If I don't find any books at AU, I can look for them in the consortium that includes seven universities from the DC area. The books can be ordered online and usually arrive in about two days of making the order. They can be kept for 30 days with 3 renewals.

DC is a treasure trove of primary and secondary sources. A budding researcher can find many places to conduct research. The Library of Congress, and The National Archives are the obvious examples that come to mind. One will also be able to find and interview many senior researchers that have extensive knowledge in the field of one's choosing. I am looking to interview a leading Russian dissident for my research on Russian foreign Policy.

First Assignment: Scavenger Hunt

The first assignment for the seminar class was to travel to 14 famous landmarks in DC and take pictures next to them. This was by far the most entertaining assignment of my undergraduate career. Here are some pictures: 1. Capitol, 2. Vietnam Memorial (A post on an assignment related to it later), 3. Washington Monument.