Grand Strategy

It's strange how partisan reactions to the Nobel Prize completely missed the common-sense rationale behind the Obama pick. According to many of my outside-the-beltway friends, President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for defeating President Bush and arresting the dark spiral into which his administration had set the nation and the world. That Obama did it as an African American who first had to defeat the Democratic heir-apparent was even more remarkable. The entire campaign gave the world hope that cynicism, unchecked wealth, and fear could be overcome.

For the rest of the world--and for most of America--that is enough of an accomplishment to earn the Nobel Peace Prize. But it was not all. Obama has since led the G20 to stabilize the world economy in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression. He reached out to the Islamic world, with an open hand and he urged the world to reduce our collective nuclear arsenal.

So the prize is clearly deserved, for President Obama turned the United States around.

But as a leader, he has much still to do, and he knows it. The nation is still in the red--progressing, but in the red. The question is, is the President thinking as seriously and as in depth about America's new role in the world as he as been triaging the world's urgent crises or planning the strategy in South Asia.

By Patrick Doherty and Ben Katcher

While the media are drawn to the story of the day, which today means the killing of Baitullah Mehsud in Pakistan and the longevity of the "cash for clunkers" program here at home, it is essential for the Obama administration to keep its eye on the strategic ball. In short, while the administration was absolutely right to triage the domestic economy and global crises like Iraq and Afghanistan during its first six months, the President and his most senior advisors must now turn to the great questions of statecraft: great power relations and America's role in the world.

The Kuwait Times and Middle East Times are reporting that Kuwait has activated its Emergency War Plan in response to the deployment of two additional U.S. strike groups to the Persian Gulf, the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and the U.S.S. Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group.

The Middle East Times is saying that Kuwait is preparing for a scenario in which hostilities break out in response to a U.S. naval blockade of the Iranian coast.

However, oil prices continue to drop... 

I just came across the Transportation for America campaign. It's a coalition of some great organizations who recognize the strategic importance of building out a 21st century transportation network for the United States.

In a nutshell, T4A is advocating the following:

• Build a world-class rail and transit network that puts us ahead of the rest of the developed world, not behind.

• Help communities meet the soaring demand for homes in neighborhoods that require less driving and have access to high-quality transportation options;

• Restore, and then keep our existing highways and public transportation networks in tip-top shape.

This is important.

My colleagues in the Smart Globalization program here at New America recently hosted former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle and CEO Leo Hindery to talk about how our health care crisis is creating a massive competitive disadvantage. Our transportation infrastructure is doing the same thing.

[My latest entry on The Havana Note...]

The Havana Note talks a lot about the need for a new policy towards Cuba. Fifty years of failure is a shameful, bi-partisan indictment of how policy is made in Washington. Luckily, as we have been and will continue to show, more people recognize that change is on the way. But change for change's sake is foolish, and could easily backfire on the United States.

Fortunately, the emerging consensus on changing Cuba policy happens to coincide with another consensus, here in Washington, that America needs a major overhaul of all our relations with Latin America -- and with the rising influence of Hispanic voters.

But both movements lack strategic coherence.

Today I want to propose some ideas on tying these two efforts together in light of the great strategic challenges facing the United States over the next 30-40 years.

Two fascinating news stories deserve to be juxtaposed, but I don't have much time between meetings today.

First, is the recently concluded conference launching the Union for the Mediterranean, led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The second item, related to the first, is that UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Sarkozy are backing a £35bn supergrid for Europe and North Africa that would facilitate the the kind of renewable energy economy that T. Boone Pickens could only dream of and that Al Gore is only just starting to talk about.

Contrast that bold, sustainable initiative with China's quest for coal in Australia and the utterly disheartening and, really, dysfunctional news that there are up to 90 billion barrels of oil under the Arctic ice sheet, which of course is becoming thinner due to our previous oil use.

We hope you can join us for this event next week:

Thirty-seven years after Nixon went to China, the next President of the United States has another chance to split a non-threatening communist state away from an aggressive socialist power. Then, like now, there is an opportunity to really change the perception of the United States in the world and shift the conversation.

This event is co-hosted by the New America Foundation and The Nixon Center.

To register for this event, click here.

Start: 07/28/2008 - 12:30pm
End: 07/28/2008 - 2:00pm

New America Foundation
1630 Connecticut Ave, NW 7th Floor
Washington, 20009

Featured speakers

Dimitri K. Simes
President, The Nixon Center
Former Foreign Policy Advisor to Richard Nixon

Flynt Leverett
Senior Fellow, Director, Geopolitics of Energy Initiative, New America Foundation
Former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs, National Security Council

Calling all prospective interns... special consideration given to those who can start in August... We can guarantee at least one of the two superstars above will be part of your internship...

Click here for the official link.

Intern, American Strategy Program

The New America Foundation is continually seeking enthusiastic intern applicants to assist the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. The American Strategy Program at the new America Foundation is one of Washington's most dynamic and innovative foreign policy centers situated at the nexus of strategy, policy and politics.

Primary Responsibilities

Sometimes it is good to provoke an unconventional thought. I'm wondering whether Al Gore's energy speech, which Senator Obama has not yet fully embraced, could be picked up by Senator McCain to upset the curious balance between the two candidates and secure the win in November.

Let me start at the beginning. In his path-breaking address yesterday, Al Gore shook loose the bonds of political gravity and finally proposed a key element of any new American grand strategy: 100% carbon-free electricty by 2018.

Saying "100%" about anything in the context of sustainability in America is nearly impossible in Washington, but the former Vice President seems to understand what McCain and Obama have yet to fully grasp: the nation is hungry for a decisive, bold step towards a new economic engine for the United States.