Shift Focus

While President Clinton has been fixated on “resolving” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nasty business has been taking place elsewhere. It may in fact be precisely because he has been so heavily involved in creating a Palestinian state with its capital in a divided Jerusalem – an activity better left undone – that he has paid scant attention to troubling international realignments.

While President Clinton has been fixated on “resolving” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nasty business has been taking place elsewhere. It may in fact be precisely because he has been so heavily involved in creating a Palestinian state with its capital in a divided Jerusalem – an activity better left undone – that he has paid scant attention to troubling international realignments.

Russia and China: The calculating, KGB-trained Vladimir Putin has made serious inroads in “the Stans,” working to reintegrate the former Soviet Republics economically and militarily. They may remain nominally independent, but the brief opportunity for the U.S. to influence the development of Central Asia towards free-market democracy appears to have passed. During Putin’s visit to Beijing, Russia and China produced a joint statement objecting to American development of missile defenses. (Isn’t China supposed to be our “strategic partner?”) Last week, Putin walked right up to our European allies at the G-8 summit and brazenly asked them to side with him against us on missile defense. And they did.

Europe: Not only are the Europeans quite loudly distancing themselves from us on missile defenses – which they need as much as we do – they are taking economic and political steps that should concern as well as embarrass us.

The European Union is considering an independent military force (a collective thumbing of the nose at American military leadership in NATO). French and Russian energy companies have been working together for years, including deals in Iran, and Italy just signed a $3.8 billion oil and gas exploration deal with Iran – all blatant violations of U.S. sanctions policy. While the U.S. has been advising Arafat not to declare a state unilaterally, the Europeans have said they will recognize it if he does. Even Turkey has been negotiating pipeline deals with Iran and Russia.

For years, North Korea has been starving its people to keep its resources available for ballistic missile and WMD development (shared with Egypt, Iran and Syria, among others). They shot a missile over the mainland of Japan! But when Kim Jong Il met with the South Korean president, he smiled and showed some knowledge of Western music. Now, with no change in the North’s missile and proliferation policy, or military posture toward the South, the Europeans are falling over themselves to move in there.

America: Perhaps a lot of the problem lies here. We have not only failed to pay proper attention to the troublemakers, we support them. We are the biggest provider of foreign aid to North Korea. Egypt is Iraq’s biggest trading partner, but we supply our pal Mubarak with the best of American weaponry and we are the largest purchaser of Iraqi oil under the UN program. We have exacted no price from Arafat for breaking his promises. We provide aid to Russia while Russia proliferates nuclear and missile technology to Iran.

We are still the only superpower, but the trends may go the other way if we fail to pursue policies to enhance democracy, free market economics, and the rule of law.