Realism Gone Awry
Steve Clemons makes an interesting point in a debate on the proper content of "realism" and "Realism" between Paul Wolfowitz and his critics:
One of the issues I wish Wolfowitz had raised but regrettably neglected is the importance of America demonstrating by example the kind of democracy we hope others aspire to. His American Enterprise Institute colleague and former vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, applauds CIA officers who choked prisoners, faked executions before detainees, and threatened to kill children as strategies of coercion. We saw the reactions to 9/11 and the buildup to the Iraq war lead to a national-security pathology in the United States in which core democratic values were undermined. We held not just prisoners in Guantanamo but thousands of others in Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and other facilities in a manner completely at odds with our beliefs about universal human rights. We tortured -- and our government spied on a massive scale on American citizens. This kind of example is something that authoritarian governments salivate at -- and true democrats abroad revile. (emphasis added)
The world of ideas and their associated impact remains as vibrant as ever. When China and Russia violently eviscerate their Uigher and Chechen secessionist movements respectively without facing significant international criticism, the practical effects of an international human rights "norm" takes a real hit. The violent crackdown on civilians in Iran after the recent Iranian election undermines the legitimacy of not only the Islamic Republic of Iran, but also (for better or worse) the idea of an Islamic state. Similarly but to different ends, the election of Barack Obama remains in a sense America's greatest foreign policy achievement since attaining global hegemony after the end of the Cold War -- has anything else so dramatically reduced international animosity toward the U.S.? In a world governed less by military power and more by confidence in a nation's capability to innovate (think about financial markets), could any other domestic U.S. action other than the election of Obama so massively increased global trust in U.S. leadership?
The current global challenges posed by climate-change, economic recession, violent non-state actors, and the increasing preponderance of nuclear weapons will continue to also function as opportunities for states to enforce the better and more humane side of their own national interests -- that is, the protection of the well-being of their own citizens. Besides, isn't that the raison d'etre of states anyway? Doesn't anyone read the work of Andrew Bacevich?
