Around the globe, a ‘new world order’
ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE
WASHINGTON – The “new world order” that George H.W. Bush proclaimed in 1990 during the dusk of the Soviet Union would be a place “free from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice and more secure in the quest for peace.”
A series of American presidents, including his eldest son, have struggled to attain that vision, but the global response to Bush’s death Nov. 30 at 94 served to confirm his place as one of the leading statesmen of the 20th century.
His death hung over the G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where President Donald Trump found himself locked in a series of high-stakes encounters with the leaders of Russia, China, Germany and Japan — current and past adversaries still sorting out their interlocking interests three decades after Bush helped broker the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany.
“He’s the father, or one of the fathers, of the German unification, and we will never forget that,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, standing beside Trump at a brief meeting with reporters.
Criticized at home in the midst of a faltering economy and rising deficits, Bush won praise in his single term from 1989 to 19993 from the international community for the restraint he showed at a time when the Iron Curtain was falling and the U.S. was emerging from the Cold War as the world’s only superpower.
While it was his predecessor, President Ronald Reagan, who had famously called on Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” in Berlin, it was Bush who was left to navigate the unforeseen popular uprising that actually dismantled the wall.
Far from antagonizing his communist adversaries and provoking a possible backlash, Bush is generally credited with laboring to assure a peaceful transition to a world in which, as he saw it, “nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice. A world where the strong respect the rights of the weak.”
Gorbachev recognized Bush’s negotiating skill in a statement Saturday recalling a fraught time that knew both 21st century-style random terror as well as the mid-20th century’s constant preoccupation with nuclear annihilation.
“We had a chance to work together during the years of tremendous changes. It was a dramatic time that demanded great responsibility from everyone,” Gorbachev told the Interfax news agency. “The result was an end to the Cold War and the nuclear arms race.”
Bush’s foreign policy legacy was built up not only in the Oval Office but also as a CIA director and vice president for eight years under Reagan, his 1980 presidential rival. U.S. allies also recalled Bush’s role in the defining moment of his generation: World War II.
“Throughout his life he dedicated himself to his country and to the fight for freedom,” JeanClaude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said in a statement. “From becoming the youngest Navy pilot in history during the Second World War, to his ambassadorial roles at the United Nations or China, he always served his country with honor, bravery and dignity. This also defined his presidency that came at a time of enormous change and instability across the world.”
Bush, a former oilman, also developed deep ties in the Middle East, where he presided over a 100-hour war to push Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army out of Kuwait. Some criticized it as a partial victory, because it left Saddam in power; others again praised him for his restraint, evident a decade later when his son, President George W. Bush, found himself bogged down in a bloody and chaotic occupation of Iraq.
For many diplomats, more striking than Bush’s show of American power — often viewed as a resurgence from the agony of Vietnam — was the 30-nation coalition he assembled, backed by a United Nations mandate that included several Arab nations.
Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah alAhmad al-Sabah, issued a statement praising both Bush’s “historic stand” and his “pivotal role in forming an international coalition, mandated by the U.N. to liberate the state of Kuwait.”
To some foreign policy experts, Bush’s multilateral approach to world affairs stood in contrast to that of his son after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and, more recently, to Trump’s aggressive rhetoric on trade and NATO funding, and his courting of global autocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Less often remembered is the work Bush did with Secretary of State James Baker — another Houston figure — to revive the Middle East peace process. Even as he clashed with then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir over the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Bush brought opposing Palestinian, Arab and Israeli leaders to Madrid in 1991 for what was then seen as a groundbreaking effort to hold a multiparty peace conference.
“The people of Israel will always remember his commitment to Israel’s security, his important contribution to the liberation of Soviet Jewry, and his efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East at the Madrid Conference,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Whatever Bush’s international successes or failures, world leaders memorializing his life emphasized the qualities of decency and integrity that they saw in his approach to the world.
Former British Prime Minister John Major said in a statement that Bush “saw America’s obligation to the world and honored it.” He added, “He was, quite simply, one of the most deep-down decent people I have ever known.”