The U.S. Role blog generally examines U.S. actions in the international context and only rarely is our focus on domestic politics. The passing of Senator Edward Kennedy provides an opportunity to note how this important domestic event is reverberating in the world at large. This report from the Associated Press offers some insight into how world leaders saw Kennedy and notes his involvement in promoting peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland as one of his greatest international achievements:
Nowhere outside of America has the Kennedy legacy been more deeply felt than in Ireland, where photographs of the family adorn homes and hundreds claim to be distant relations of the glittering dynasty that brought the first Roman Catholic to the White House. Here, Senator Edward Kennedy is largely known as JFK’s brother. But he was also a power broker who mobilized Irish Americans and their political views on Northern Ireland — a kingmaker whose actions in the years before the Good Friday peace talks served to lay the groundwork for a lasting accord.
I would also suggest that as a dynamic leader of one of our political parties, Kennedy was an example to the world of the vibrancy of the two-party system in America. As someone famous for his ability to reach across party lines, build coalitions, and forge pragmatic solutions to complicated problems he was also a symbol of the strength and resiliency of the democratic process.
Photo Credit: AP
