Is it any wonder that Democratic senator and presidential hopeful Barak Obama went from “Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove” in a week when one of his campaign advisors, Brookings fellow Ivo Daalder, has co-authored an op-ed piece in today’s Washington Post with Carnegie Endowment “scholar” (sic) and McCain advisor Robert Kagan on how the United States government should stage the “next” intervention.
At least Daalder and Kagan are honest. There will be more interventions, quite possibly lots more:
Throughout its history, America has frequently used force on behalf of principles and tangible interests, and that is not likely to change. Despite the difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan, America remains the world’s dominant military power, spends half a trillion dollars a year on defense and faces no peer strong enough to deter it if it chooses to act. Between 1989 and 2001, Americans intervened with significant military force on eight occasions — once every 18 months. This interventionism has been bipartisan — four interventions were launched by Republican administrations, four by Democratic administrations. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the situations in which an American president may have to use force have only grown, whether it is to respond to terrorist threats, to curb weapons proliferation, to prevent genocide or other human rights violations, or to respond to more traditional forms of aggression.
What matters two these two warmongers is the legitimacy of intervention. Americans must believe their government is doing the “right” thing for the “right” reason, and that international institutions, or at least the world’s “democracies,” support all upcoming interventions. Because merely going to the UN to seek the approval of the Security Council is not enough to legitimize force. If it ever was.
Daalder and Kagen then suggest the creation of yet another informal international governing arrangement, a “Council of Democracies.”
Eventually, perhaps, these matters could be addressed and decided in a more formal arrangement, a Concert of Democracies, where the world’s democracies could meet and cooperate in dealing with the many global challenges they confront. Until such a formal mechanism has been created, however, future presidents need to recognize that legitimacy matters, and that the most meaningful and potent form of legitimacy for a democracy such as the United States is the kind bestowed by fellow democrats around the world.
If there’s anything that proves America’s elites are incapable of learning anything remotely resembling humility or the limits on human action, this piece is it. It would be nice if Americans and their governing elites gave up on empire and intervention, but it’s clear that empire will need to pried from their cold, dead hands. Those of us who wish to live in a normal country are going to have a very long wait.
6:13 am on August 6, 2007
