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National Renewal
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20272 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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7 / 1992 |
1,089 Words |
| Author
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Robert E. Hunter
Robert E. Hunter is vice president for regional programs at
the Center for Strategic and International Studies in
Washington, D.C. During 1979-1981, he was director of Middle
East Affairs at the National Security Council. |
This November, the American people have their first chance to choose new leaders since the end of the Cold War, the collapse of communism, and the birth of a new era in global history. The president who takes the reins of power next January will face an agenda radically different from that of the past four decades: It is a time tailored for the Democratic Party, which has moved beyond past divisions--emanating from Vietnam--to a new sense of purpose about America's role abroad.
The most critical task facing the new president will be to convince the majority of the American people that it is essential to have a foreign policy. Ironically, that means starting at home. Even though war has not been abolished by the passing of the Soviet Union, the new era places a premium on economic as opposed to military strength. The United States is preeminent militarily, but it now lacks the economic strength and flexibility to secure its interests in a world in which military margins do not buy the influence America enjoyed for the last half-century.
In the Democratic view, therefore, rebuilding at home must top the U.S. global agenda--a fact underscored by the Los Angeles riots. At the same time, the American people must be convinced that engagement in the outside world pays direct dividends in individual lives, in communities, and in the nation as a whole. With renewed national economic strength--plus a renewed compact to make foreign and domestic policies work together--the next president can begin to discharge America's duties in an interdependent world.
Two issues will dominate the first part of the new presidency. The less glamorous task is to strengthen the basis for an open, global economy. The United States has a clear interest in eroding trade barriers. In this hemisphere, that means supporting the North American free trade area (NAFTA), which will join Mexico to the United States and Canada in economic partnership. It also means requiring that other economic giants, notably Japan and Western Europe, play by the rules in an expanding, global market. With vigorous efforts at home to revive the U.S. economy and increase productivity, calling on trading partners to create a "level playing field" will have much more credibility than is true today, with the administration's faltering domestic leadership.
At the same time, no one can doubt the historical importance of what is happening in the newly liberated lands that stretch from the former intra-German border eastward to the Bering Sea. Clearly, the job of building pluralistic
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