The world today needs stronger leadership than United States President Barack Obama offered this week at the United Nations General Assembly. The successive crises threatening to wreck decades of successful global governance need firm leadership to inspire successful responses, so it was sad to see Obama offering platitudes, while keeping at least one eye on the US elections. He was very careful not to offer any dramatic initiatives that the Republicans would attack under the bilious leadership of their candidate Donald Trump, and so harm Democrat Hilary Clinton’s chances of electoral success. For example, while speaking up for an interconnected and multilateral world, he was careful to lambast leaders who wanted to build walls between nations, which he said fuelled rising nationalism, sectarian hatred and economic inequality. But it was also a golden opportunity to mock Trump’s ludicrous idea of a wall between the US and Mexico.
In 2009, the new President Obama strode onto the podium to call for a new relationship with the Muslim world, which he followed up with a stirring speech in Cairo, but then lapsed into continued military interventions and no new diplomacy, leaving America’s Muslim allies in the familiar position of feeling embarrassed about their friends in Washington. In 2009, Obama had spoken passionately about the need to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestine. But despite the Israelis’ rejection of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s hard work on trying to re-launch the talks, and years of bitter disdain from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama came up with nothing more than a standard formula this week. He said that everyone would “be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognise the legitimacy of Israel, but Israel recognises that it cannot permanently occupy and settle on Palestinian land”. Nothing new, but nothing to upset voters who Hillary desperately needs to keep on her side. And by recognising the status quo, Obama ensures more years of misery for the Occupied Territories.
The hot topic of the day was Syria where an aid convoy had been attacked just as he was about to speak. Rather than condemn the violence and stand up for the ceasefire plan, Obama offered a bland overview observing that “we have to be honest about the nature of these conflicts ... In a place like Syria, where there’s no ultimate military victory to be won”. The Syrian people need more than an American president offering generalities.
