Obama finally hits stride on foreign policy
Until last weekend, Cuba and Iran had nothing whatever in common. Cuba is small; Iran is large. Cuba is a communist state; Iran a religious one.
Now, suddenly, the pair have become alike in one vital respect. This is that in both countries, large numbers of ordinary people have gone crazy over U.S. President Barack Obama.
To a considerable degree, the reason for this transformation is so obvious that it seems a waste of time to spell it out. Its source is that Obama has dared to trust both countries, on nuclear matters in the instance of Iran and on political ones in the case of Cuba.
But an “X” factor is also a key part of the radical change now taking place. Its nature was described well at the weekend meeting in Panama where that country’s President Juan Carlos Varela made the point that “the way he (Obama) is supporting Hispanics in the United States is to us very important.”
The same attitude was expressed by Cuban President Raul Castro who first denounced the U.S. for its half-century of bullying his small country and then turned right around to emphasize that Obama himself was not responsible for any of this in any way.
The circumstances in Iran are both the same and different. Doing a nuclear deal with Iran is of course a far more difficult and serious matter than ending the half-century of political hostility between the U.S. and Cuba.
Yet the response on Tehran’s streets to the draft nuclear pact has been as enthusiastic as that in Havana.
Put simply, a lot of Iranians like Obama and are prepared to trust him. They, as do many Cubans, interpret his actions and character as an offering of what could best described as a longdenied chance for the peoples of these countries to achieve normalcy, political, economic, personal.
It would be naive to suppose that any of this will be done easily. Powerful opponents to change exist in Iran in the instance of the hard-line Republican Guard, likewise in Cuba in the power still exercised by all its lifelong communists. Incidentally, the same resistance to change exists as strongly in the U.S. itself among Republicans whose principal policy now seems to be to prevent Obama from implementing any of his policies.
What’s encouraging is that no one is sounding naïve. Not the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, who when asked at a press conference if the nuclear deal might lead to a general rapprochement between Iran and the U.S. answered, “No. Negotiations are only for the nuclear issue.” Not Obama, who when asked about possible weaknesses in the nuclear agreement replied, “Do you think that this deal is a worse option than the risk of another war in the Middle East?”
Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper has begun to change his tune. Until now, Canada has treated Iran as a perpetual enemy, making the point as clearly as it could be done by closing our embassy in Tehran. At the same time our diplomatic dealings with Cuba have been minimal.
At the Panama meeting, Harper declared he was now “convinced” that “an engagement is more likely to lead us to where we want to go than continued isolation.”
Engagement rather than isolation is exactly the policy that Obama has been pursuing. He tried to implement it early in his term and got nowhere. He’s trying again and this time it’s working.
He, and his policy, may well still fail. But for the first time in years a sense exists that global foreign policy can actually be creative, hopeful and, even, to fall back on that cliché, “make the world a better place.”
We should join the cheering for Obama. And Harper should spend more time reading the president’s speeches.
For the first time in years, a sense exists that global foreign policy can actually be creative, hopeful and even, to fall back on that cliché, “make the world a better place”
Richard Gwyn’s column usually appears every other Tuesday. gwynr@sympatico.ca