01
Oct
2012
Smart Power or Wise Power?
Time magazine’s recent cover story on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and “smart power” joins a growing consensus, at home and abroad, that U.S. foreign policy has softened considerably in recent years, therefore the world really ought to once again accept American leadership. But is this shift directed toward increased cooperation for the international common good? Or is it a just kinder, gentler way for America to have its own way in the world?
Read this editorial here
Helpful reading. I’m wondering if there are any examples from history where there was a collaborative leadership amongst several nations, even two, in pursuit of the common good. It would seem that part of the necessity of such collaborative operational vision would be a mutual assessment of each nation’s relatively equal strength (and need).
It’s a good question, Paul. On the one hand, states tend to arrange collaborations based on their national interests, which many not have much to do with international common good. On the other hand, if they were to focus more on common good they would have to start defining that, which is where huge basic problems would emerge, given the different ideological lenses through which states typically define everything. The agency of wisdom their as an analytical and prescriptive means would give them a way around that.
Very well put, and succinctly put – which I liked. I think that, as with the British, especially in our empire days, the approach of US foreign policy makers is torn between a misplaced attempt at idealistic goals, with a confidence that we know what’s best, and the kind of hard-nosed pragmatism which is the stock in trade of national diplomacy the world over. The way they try to square this circle is doubtless by telling themselves that what’s good for America is good for the rest, which, again, is how we British tried to justify ourselves in the days of our hegemony. Keep up the good work!