India and US - III

[acharya]

(2008, Mar) "Whither American Foreign Policy in the Next Administration?"

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the ISA's 49th ANNUAL CONVENTION, BRIDGING MULTIPLE DIVIDES, Hilton San Francisco, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA

2008-06-25 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p253183_index.html


Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The president who succeeds George W. Bush in office will face several challenges, not least of which will be the attempt to reestablish American credibility, legitimacy and effectiveness among many governments and populations around the world. This paper argues that while a new president can overcome a certain degree of resistence to US policy by virtue of a personnel change alone, this will not be sufficient to fully repair strained relations, and to reestablish an American global role that resembles the pre-9/11 world. First of all, while the US can change its policies, it cannot control the effects of past policies. In addition, developments such as 1) political and leadership changes in France, Britain and other EU countries; and 2) the impacts of Chinese and Indian economic growth, as well as the more globally engaged diplomacy of these countries, have produced changes in the international system that cannot be changed by a new American president and new American policy priorities.