SHEDDING THE DISGRACE OF 'REALPOLITIK'

The question to ask in international relations is, “Are two states equal if one state has superior power over the other?” The former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, has masterfully played the “realpolitik” card repeatedly during his tenure. It was the result of a long tradition of conservative foreign policy based on our primitive and innate feeling of peck order. As a result, the rest of the countries in the world feared the United States but did not respect us—we were the top chicken. Obama seems to understand that the same principles that apply to domestic law apply to international law; laws and courts are there to protect the rights of the weak against the powerful. In the absence of a powerful standing armed forces under the command of the United Nations and a universally recognized international court, international law depends on all nations respecting the sovereignty of each other: powerful or weak, big or small, rich or poor. I am proud of the fact that finally the United States I using it power to that end.

The United States has the military might and the material resources to rule the world—the goal of ‘realpolitik’—if our leaders chose to do so. Thus, the shadow of Henry Kissinger falls over a group of people we call neo-cons. We have to be ever vigilant to protect our Nation from such a fate; the danger is always there because it lurks in the mind of these people; it seems to an attitude held universal in the minds of some people but not most people. Some of the neo-cons are in powerful governmental positions.

I sense our Commander in Chief, Barrack Obama, will guide us in the honorable direction of law and order through use of respect and not the use of fear; thus, he will honorably maintain our position as a world leader. He is working in that direction in Iran, in North Korea, and in Israel, for example. Also and almost in a hidden ways, he is doing the same thing in South America, in Africa, and around the rest of the world. He is shifting United States foreign policy from ‘realpolitik’, power by force, to respect for the sovereignty of all nations, respect for the right of the weak as well as the strong. More importantly, respect for the rights of all Nations exists in the Head of Obama. Did Hilary Clinton do a good job for our President? I believe she did an almost impossible job because that kind of respect exists in her head as well. Respect for the United States is building even in the remote corners of the world. Shedding the disgrace of ‘realpolitik’ is a remarkable but mainly unrecognized achievement for Obama in just four years.