After a detour into arrogant unilateralism, a more humble America is returning to the path of global cooperation. This was the gist of the message President Obama delivered to the world in his speech yesterday at the United Nations.
Predictably, the speech incensed conservatives, who saw it as the latest example of Obama’s alleged compulsion to apologize for past U.S. behavior. But the president’s real purpose was to issue not mea culpas but a pointed challenge to the international community to stop carping about America’s misdeeds and take responsibility for confronting common global problems.
Obama outlined the steps he has taken to reverse his predecessor’s unpopular policies: banning torture, promising to shut down Gitmo, embracing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Middle East peace talks, and tackling climate change, among others. And he added this paean to multilateralism:
We have also re-engaged the United Nations. We have paid our bills. We have joined the Human Rights Council. We have signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We have fully embraced the Millennium Development Goals. And we address our priorities here, in this institution – for instance, through the Security Council meeting that I will chair tomorrow on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament…
But Obama made it clear that America’s embrace of collective problem-solving is predicated on major changes at the U.N. “Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone,” he said. Obama went further, accusing the General Assembly of allowing itself to be used as a forum for “sowing discord” and stoking divisions rather than for building consensus.
It will take more than a good speech to change the U.N.’s bad habits. The Human Rights Council, for example, has just issued a tendentious report slamming Israel for war crimes in Gaza, while skating lightly over Hamas’ responsibility for sparking the conflict. But in a subtle way, Obama underscored the necessity of U.S. leadership in setting the agenda for global cooperation. He outlined four key priorities for the international community – stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, settling bloody conflicts, saving the planet from climate change, and expanding economic opportunity.
Obama ended, fittingly, with a strong defense of democracy and human rights. He described them as universal, not American, values, and reminded his audience that they had been the animating principles of the U.N.’s founding in 1945. And in a rebuke to the dictators that preceded and followed him to the podium, he declared that “no individual should be forced to accept the tyranny of their own government.”
Conservatives ought to relax. There is no harm in a U.S. president acknowledging America’s mistakes and imperfections, as long as he stands up firmly for America’s interests and values. That’s what Obama did.
