Obama to reshape the world? Too soon to tell

• Source: The Global Times
• [23:20 April 28 2009]
• Comments

Challenges ahead

Jin: The Obama administration's endeavor has been well received. But it remains a question whether other countries will provide more money and military power to help the US. At the recent NATO and EU summits, the US failed to persuade NATO and the Europeans to share more responsibilities. If he cannot make a substantive achievement in this regard, he will be facing domestic pressure from conservatives, who already criticized Obama for undermining US pride. So it is still too early to assess the effects of the new US foreign policy.

Hagt: New presidents are always ambitious in their rhetoric on new policies. It is what gets them elected. But the banal reality is that American politics is heavily weighed down by inertia and continuity.

How Obama's "new direction" fares against this pushback will be played out in the months ahead. For instance, he will be under tremendous pressure in his engagement policy on Iran. Engagement is probably the better road to take but it is the harder one. A tougher, more hard-line stance is the fallback position and one with far less political risk.

(This article is based on interviews by Chen Chenchen, He Shenquan, Zha Wen and Lu Jingxian)