{"id":8490,"date":"2011-01-28T14:31:42","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T19:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=8490"},"modified":"2011-01-28T14:31:42","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T19:31:42","slug":"mid-east-situation-tests-obamas-foreign-policy-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/8490\/mid-east-situation-tests-obamas-foreign-policy-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Mid East Situation Tests Obama&#8217;s Foreign Policy Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If drawing a word picture of the increasingly uncivil unrest in the Middle East \u2013 and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2011\/01\/28\/us-egypt-protest-idUSTRE70O3UW20110128\" target=\"_blank\">especially Egypt<\/a> \u2013 the image would be dominated by the words \u201cdemocracy,\u201d \u201cprotest,\u201d \u201cyouth,\u201d and \u201cchange,\u201d among others.\u00a0 If the on-the-ground reporting and television pictures are to be believed, the one word uniting these themes is \u201chope.\u201d\u00a0 Specifically, hope in an end to corrupt government that robs people of wealth and ambition, as well as freedom and justice.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.associatedcontent.com\/article\/7691554\/is_egypt_barack_obamas_iran.html?cat=9\" target=\"_blank\">Writers<\/a> of all <a href=\"http:\/\/lynch.foreignpolicy.com\/posts\/2011\/01\/28\/a_fateful_day_in_egypt\" target=\"_blank\">stripes<\/a> are focusing on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/world\/revolution-is-in-the-air-but-us-sticks-to-same-old-script-20110128-1a8e6.html\" target=\"_blank\">importance<\/a> of President Barak Obama\u2019s administration to \u2018get it right\u2019 on its position towards the protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, Lebanon, and Jordan.\u00a0 To date, Obama\u2019s only foreign policy precedent in this realm is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/2009\/06\/22\/obama-stands-firm-restrained-response-iran-protests\/\" target=\"_blank\">lack of solidarity<\/a> he showed towards pro-reform forces in Iran.\u00a0 Could this week\u2019s much wider conflagration see the implosion of Obama\u2019s claim to be the worldwide symbol of change-hope-youth-democracy-uplift?<\/p>\n<p>The complicating factor in all this is an American strategic interest that supports secular dictators over Islamist radicals.\u00a0 Continuing that choice makes sense if those are the only options, but the remarkable thing about the protests is that Islamist groups (like Egypt\u2019s Muslim Brotherhood) are not (yet) at the forefront of the movements.\u00a0 Right now, it seems like most people are rebelling against the type of Mafioso government that keeps vast swaths of citizens repressed.<\/p>\n<p>If nothing else, the knowledge and skill required at this level of foreign policy should serve as a warning to any 2012 presidential contenders (including the man likely to want a second term).\u00a0 In these situations, you only get one chance to make the right decision, so you&#8217;d better be prepared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If drawing a word picture of the increasingly uncivil unrest in the Middle East \u2013 and especially Egypt \u2013 the image would be dominated by the words \u201cdemocracy,\u201d \u201cprotest,\u201d \u201cyouth,\u201d and \u201cchange,\u201d among others.\u00a0 If the on-the-ground reporting and television pictures are to be believed, the one word uniting these themes is \u201chope.\u201d\u00a0 Specifically, hope [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[914,143,1751,1362,216,1137,130,1125,13],"class_list":["post-8490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-2012-presidential-election","tag-barack-obama","tag-democracy","tag-egypt","tag-foreign-policy","tag-freedom","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-protests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8490"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8505,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8490\/revisions\/8505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}