Sometimes, it can be good to hear from the naysayers. I remember during the presidential campaign many FP bloggers noted the incredible world-wide hope and enthusiasm that greeted the Obama candidacy. It was hoped that Obama would transform the U.S. role in the world. It’s time to revisit that topic. In this opinion piece, Professor Fouad Ajami touches on the overlap between U.S. domestic political expectations of President Obama and his glowing reception abroad. He suggests that no matter how powerful those expectations may have been, the spell is now broken. Of particular interest to our U.S. Role focus is his depiction of the manner in which Obama gave the world hope in himself while doing nothing to diminish the tide of anti-American sentiment:
In this extraordinary tale of hubris undone, the Europeans—more even than the people in Islamic lands—can be assigned no small share of blame. They overdid the enthusiasm for the star who had risen in America. It was the way in Paris and Berlin (not to forget Oslo of course) of rebuking all that played out in America since 9/11—the vigilance, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the sense that America’s interests and ways were threatened by a vengeful Islamism. But while the Europeans and Muslim crowds hailed him, they damned his country all the same. For his part, Mr. Obama played along, and in Ankara, Cairo, Paris and Berlin he offered penance aplenty for American ways.
So, a question then for our readers, what do you make of Prof. Ajami’s contention that many countries were quick to celebrate Obama but not America? Have we seen any appreciable change in opinion of the U.S. and the U.S. role in the world? Are U.S. allies more agreeable, our enemies less confrontational, and those in the middle more inclined to give the us the benefit of the doubt? Perhaps it is simply too early in this young administration to definitively answer these questions, but Prof. Ajami has reminded us that it may not be too early to start looking for the answers.
