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EDITORIALS

Monday, March 31, 2008

POINT OF VIEW/ Robert Dujarric

Choosing the best U.S. president for the world

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Special to The Asahi Shimbun

The American presidential election
is fundamentally undemocratic. The
franchise is limited to U.S. citizens,but the unique combination of American power and the willingness to use
it makes the U.S. commander-in-chief
the closest thing the planet has to a
global leader.
In Japan’s case, the entire architecture of its security policy depends on
the United States. In some ways, theU.S. president is still Japan’s commander-in-chief. Beyond NortheastAsia, American actions throughout theworld shape the world in which theJapanese people exist.
Given these facts, what should Japan
want from the next U.S. president?
Issues that pertain directly to Japanare not salient in this election. All thethree top candidates, namely Senators
Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCainand Barack Obama show no indication that they would deviate from thepolicies of the (Bill) Clinton and Bushadministrations of strengthening thealliance and upholding the Japan-U.S.
Security Treaty. They would also seek
to avoid conflict with China while
hedging against possible Chinese
threats.
Therefore, the question is which
candidate would best improve theglobal environment in which Japan
operates.
The George W. Bush administration, backed by many Democrats inCongress, has severely undermined

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American primacy. The combinationof the attack against Iraq, the mishandled response to al-Qaida, the legalization of torture and a Leninist“you are either with us or against us”
posture has undermined the capacityof the United States to uphold and develop a world order that serves its interests and those of its allies.
The next president will first haveto remove U.S. troops from Iraq. Liquidating the Iraqi enterprise will require courage. The president will beaccused of “giving in to terrorists.” It
would be politically more expedient,though worse for everybody, to follow Richard Nixon’s course in Vietnam, that is, to continue the war foryears until defeat appears even more
inevitable.
Second, he or she will have to rethink the strategy to confront al-Qaida and its offshoots, and more broadly
U.S. policy toward Southwest Asia.
This will also be difficult. In particular, opening a dialogue with Iran andpushing Israelis and Palestinians toward a compromise will generatestrong opposition within the UnitedStates without a guarantee of success.
Third, the United States derives its
strength partly from the power of its
ideals. The future U.S. president will
have to rebuild America’s image inthe world, especially in Europe andSouthwest Asia, after years of self-inflicted damage.
Fourth, the U.S. president will haveto foster world trade liberalization
while fighting protectionist pressures

at home.
Therefore, how
do the three contenders for theWhite House ratein their ability perform as president?
The American system allows individuals with no federal
executive branchexperience to as- Robert Dujarricsume office, making
it particularly hard to guess how they
will perform after they take the oathof office. Nevertheless, we can makea few educated guesses.
John McCain is by far the most experienced of the three, especially inforeign and defense policy. He deserves respect as one of the few major U.S. politicians of either party tovigorously oppose the administration’suse of torture.
Unfortunately, his passionate support for the war in Iraq raises questions about his capacity to lead
America out of this catastrophic adventure. It is possible that, upon assuming the presidency, he would alter
his views, but there is no indicationthat this will be the case.
On the Democratic side, despite attempts by both camps to highlight thedifferences between Clinton and Obama, both senators are, in politicalterms, fairly similar, which makes it
hard to predict how their policies
would diverge were they elected.
Obama does have, however, a few

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advantages. First and foremost, heshowed better judgment than Clintonby opposing the Iraq invasion fromthe start. Having grown up in Indonesia and then in Hawaii, he has amore personal connection to the world
outside the continental United States
than Clinton. Finally, his being AfricanAmerican would have an enormous
symbolic impact overseas on America’s image.
Though Japanese cannot vote, theJapanese government can take actions
that would help steer the next president on the right path. The most important ones relate to trade.
Democratic candidates, pandering tomisconceptions about international
economics, are sounding protectionist.
Obama is calling for renegotiating
NAFTA and opposes the free trade
agreement with South Korea, while
Clinton laments “jobs lost to China.”
Though it is possible that if elected
they would abandon of their campaign
rhetoric, this is not certain. Japan itself
is not immune to protectionism.
If the Japanese government made amajor push to dismantle trade barriers,
especially in agriculture, and to foster a better climate for foreign investment, it could help start a virtuous
circle of trade liberalization and avoid
the real risk of a vicious circle of protectionism.
The author is director of the Instituteof Contemporary Japanese Studies atTemple University Japan.