Foreign Policy

There’s plenty of free advice for the Obama administration over its Middle East policies at the annual Herzliya conference in Israel, where policymakers and other security experts are meeting to discuss the strategic challenges of the day.

In the past dominated by Iran and its nuclear program, this year’s conference has been marked by angst about the turmoil in Egypt. The Israelis are particularly worried about the authoritarian government of President Hosni Mubarak being replaced after elections by a government where the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood could have a role.

According to a Gallup poll released right before the president’s State of the Union address, a majority of Americans said they favor cutting U.S. foreign aid, but more than six in 10 opposed cuts to education, Social Security and Medicare.

That is not that surprising. Nobody wants his or her Social Security touched. Let’s cut spending on all those foreigners.

Another survey, released in 2010 and conducted by The WorldPublicOpinion.org project at the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, asked the question: "What percentage of the federal budget goes to foreign aid?" The median answer was roughly 25 percent, according to the poll of 848 Americans. In reality, about 1 percent of the budget is allotted to foreign aid.

The crisis in the Middle East is the result of the failure of the national security establishment of both political parties since the Second World War to develop a foreign policy strategy both worthy of our nation and protective of our security.

For far too long our security establishment has accepted the Kissingerian notion of utilitarian alliances, which tolerates vile governments because their enemy is our enemy.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak took to the airwaves to publicly state he will not seek the office of the presidency anymore, thus ending over three decades of rule. There is a reason Mubarak enjoyed such a lengthy tenure, and he has the United States to thank in some small measure.
 
Let’s not kid ourselves. It was in our national interest to have Mubarak in power. His government, no matter how flawed and sometimes oppressive, was predictable, which is a rare commodity in the Middle East. In many respects, Egypt was an oasis of calm in an otherwise tumultuous part of the world. And we have Mubarak to thank, in part, for that relative peace.

At last, the Obama administration has begun to tighten the screws on President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, has just served notice that American aid — including military assistance — will depend on the “concrete reforms” of the Egyptian government. Gibbs spoke at the end of a tumultuous day that saw unprecedented mass protests by Egyptians demanding the removal of Mubarak and his family viciously put down by security forces until the army was brought out onto the streets.

“The Master said: ‘Stupid and yet desirous of doing things his own way; ignoble and yet desirous of taking himself as sole authority; born in today’s world, yet reverting to the Tao that has come down to us from antiquity — People like this will bring calamity on themselves.’ ” — Doctrine of the Mean, Zhu Xi

I’m delighted that Tiger Mom Amy Chua brings “Chinese values” — a phrase that brings to mind a big sign on I-93 when it swung into Boston before the Big Dig tunnel: “Chinese Church” — to the West. But what is more impressive, in my opinion, are the Chinese agricultural workers who worked California’s Central Valley during the Great Depression, some without pay: “We were lucky,” an elderly Chinese woman said recently. “We had ducks and chickens to eat while others had nothing.” My Irish relatives are still complaining about the potato famine.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has just left Chicago, where I live, and his presence here — where he received a more unadulterated enthusiastic welcome, led by China’s chief cheerleader Mayor Richard Daley, than he received in Washington — got me thinking about the main event: his visit to D.C.

I loved that the Obamas’ cherished daughters, Malia and Sasha, were present for some of the festivities, and that Sasha later used President Hu to test her Chinese language skills.

Some American observers are billing Hu Jintao's visit to Washington as the most important state visit in three decades — and not without good reason.

His trip comes at a time when there is a widespread belief — in both Washington and Beijing — that the U.S. is in decline. According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center, 47 percent of Americans believe that China is the world's leading economic power, compared to 31 percent who believe that America is. Although America's GDP is currently over twice as large as China's, it seems likely that China's economy will become the world's largest within the next two decades, if not sooner (The Economist has even introduced an interactive graphic that allows readers "to predict when China will overtake America" by inputting different growth rates for each country going forward).

The Chinese president, Hu Jintao, arrives in Washington today for a red-carpet welcome as his country’s Nobel Peace Prize winner languishes in jail.

It is time for President Obama to stand up to China over its shameful human-rights record. Last week the Obama administration was talking up its human-rights stance and raising expectations that the president would be more demanding. He met personally with five Chinese human-rights advocates for an hour at the White House, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a speech at the State Department that the U.S. would continue to defend Chinese bloggers, political activists and religious believers persecuted for challenging the ruling party dogma.