DATE=12/21/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=YEARENDER: U-S FOREIGN POLICY - ONE
NUMBER=5-45073
BYLINE=ED WARNER
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:

            /// EDS: This is the first of two year-end 
spots on U-S foreign policy ///


INTRO:  Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, 
America has been searching for a new foreign policy.  
During the Cold War, containment was generally the U-S 
response to Soviet expansionism.  Though that policy 
was often criticized by both the left and right, it 
served as a rough guide, and in time, it succeeded.  
What can replace it now in a much more complicated 
world?  V-O-A's Ed Warner asked four leading analysts 
for their views on the foreign policy the United 
States should pursue in the post-communist era.


TEXT:  We are still trying to find a post-communist 
strategy to deal with the world, says Michael 
Mandelbaum of the Council on Foreign Relations:

            /// Mandelbaum Act ///

      No one has found a comparable framework or 
      simplifying assumption to the one that guided 
      American foreign policy during the Cold War - 
      namely, containment.  Perhaps the closest to an 
      equivalent strategy or framework is 
      globalization, or trade.  Certainly, this 
      administration has emphasized trade throughout 
      its term in office, but it does not quite fill 
      the gap left by the collapse of the Soviet 
      Union.

            /// End Act ///

Mr. Mandelbaum says although trade might be considered 
a kind of "junior containment," it hardly carries the 
weight of that earlier policy.

Maybe we should abandon the search, says Joseph Nye, 
dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard 
University.  No overall policy can cope with today's 
global confusion:

            /// Nye Act ///

      There is not a clear and present danger as there 
      was during the Cold War.  There is not one 
      dominant enemy, as there was with the Soviet 
      Union.  The effort to reduce all the complexity 
      of foreign policy to a single slogan like 
      "democratization" or something of that sort is 
      probably misleading.  We are going to have to 
      learn to live with a somewhat more complex 
      world. 

            /// End Act ///

Mr. Nye says the United States should probably follow 
the example of nineteenth century Britain, which used 
its global power to maintain an open economy and a 
degree of order in the world.

Global stability now rests on American power, says 
General William Odum, director of National Security 
Studies at the Hudson Institute and a former Director 
of the National Security Agency:

            /// Odum Act ///

      What I see is a world in which U-S power is 
      really dramatically larger vis-vis the rest of 
      the world than most people understand, much 
      larger than most American political leaders 
      understand.  And when you add to it the 
      resources of NATO and South Korea and Japan, 
      then this alliance structure really is 
      hegemonic.  And hegemonic not in an oppressive 
      way, but in a way that countries fight to get 
      into it.  They do not fight to get out of it.

            /// End Act ///

General Odum says today's hegemonic America has been 
called an "empire by invitation."  Others join 
voluntarily.  They are not coerced.  U-S power serves 
to spread liberal institutions around the world and 
then to protect them.  Military ties are an important 
component of this.

Then why does the United States get involved in so 
many peripheral matters? asks Ted Carpenter, director 
of Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at Washington's 
Cato Institute.  He believes the lack of a strategy 
has led the United States into conflicts it should 
avoid:

            /// Carpenter Act ///

      The United States should focus on the major 
      developments in the international system that 
      could really affect our security and well-being 
      and not get bogged down in petty problems that 
      should be handled by powers in the region that 
      is affected.  Becoming the baby-sitter of the 
      Persian Gulf, the baby sitter of the Balkans, 
      should not be in the job description of a 
      country as powerful as the United States.

            /// End Act ///

Mr. Carpenter says the United States has its hands 
full dealing with troublesome powers such as China and 
Russia and should not go looking for trouble 
elsewhere. (signed)

NEB/EW/JP




21-Dec-1999 10:57 AM EDT (21-Dec-1999 1557 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.