A new dawn, USA

Nov 05, 2008 Editorial

As this editorial is being written, Americans are streaming to the polls in a landmark election that is being eagerly followed in every country in the globe. As you read this, we expect that Senator Barack Obama would have been announced as the President-elect of the USA. He will be the first African-American to have attained the highest political office in his land and there is great symbolism in this achievement.
After all, even though it has long been an article of faith that any American child could grow up to be the President, the reality had sadly fallen short of the promise. It was ironic that for an African-American man to break through the barrier of race, he had to pip the first woman who had a realistic chance of shattering the barrier of gender.
But in that prelude to the Presidential elections, it became clear that the citizens of America were finally prepared to break all the old shibboleths that stood in the way of their democratic ideals.
To most onlookers of the U.S. elections, and those who have voted for him, there is great hope that the election of Senator Obama will, however, go far beyond symbolism.
A great part of the equation that would have delivered a majority to him was a sober realisation that America, and indeed the entire globe, had arrived at one of those moments that would define an era, far beyond the transcendence of race in selecting a leader.
President-elect Obama is taking over the leadership of an America that is in the throes of an economic crisis which is almost universally conceded to be the most severe one since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. And we all know that even in that era when America was not acknowledged to be the dominant power, what a disastrous impact its depression had on the rest of the world.
In this go-around, other world leaders have not been reticent in acknowledging the pivotal role that America and its new leader would have in crafting a new economic regime for global stability.
In acknowledgement of this reality, President-elect Obama would be present when the leaders of G-20 meet in Washington on November 15, in the first of what is expected to be a series of summits to deal with the global financial crisis.
But from the standpoint of a small country and economy such as ours, what will be most interesting is whether President-elect Obama will go along with the bilateral approach of the Bush administration in dealing with global problems or whether he will signal a break and move back to the more multilateral orientation of the Clinton administration.
For developing countries such as ours, the multilateral approach gives us an opportunity to voice our concerns and offer suggestions by consolidating our voices.
Instead of continuing with G-20, which grudgingly brings together the old dominant powers plus some of the new BRIC kids on the bloc (Brazil, Russia, India and China) into a new exclusive club, we hope that President-elect Obama will look more favourably towards initiatives that are being sponsored by the UN.
But this brings us to the realities of power that confront any new American president. The U.S. has its strategic interests that are articulated and defended across its political spectrum.
Multilateralism, for instance, implies an acceptance of a multi-polar world in which the U.S. will have to adjust its priorities so as to accommodate others. In the instance of the economic crisis that is threatening to careen out of control, it would mean that the U.S. would have to coordinate its macro economic policies much closer with China.
Would President Obama be granted the political space to make such moves when he has already been defined as a “leftist” by his opponents or would he feel compelled, a la JFK, to prove that he is not “soft in protecting America’s interests”?
Whatever the answers to those questions, the U.S. elections have already done much to offer hope to many in the U.S. and across the world that it is possible to move beyond stereotypes in making decisions that affect the general good.
It is our hope that the new President will continue to offer hope by at least struggling against those old vested interests that would lock us into the sterility and futility of the past.

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