NYTimes.com Article: The World Starts Getting in the Superpower's Way

This article from NYTimes.com 
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interesting mood at the Week in Review at the NY Times today.

Steven Sherman

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The World Starts Getting in the Superpower's Way

CROSSROADS
By MARC D. CHARNEY

THE world can be hard on a new president. John F. Kennedy acted early
— and reaped disaster — at the Bay of Pigs. Bill Clinton got the
same result by not acting in Rwanda, and by waiting to act in
Bosnia. Both came to publicly rue their missteps.

 George W. Bush, too, will soon have to decide when, or whether, to
use American power — but in a world far different from the one
Kennedy or Mr. Clinton faced.

 Gone is the cold war, with its assumed need to act everywhere. But
gone, too, is the moment when Bill Clinton took office, when the
world seemed to wait deferentially on the American president's
decisions.

 The world's other leaders now have had a decade of living with
America as the lone superpower, and they are starting to form new
strategies and partnerships — sometimes in ways America may not
like.

 This shift in relationships, it has to be said, is a matter of
interpretation. Sometimes disagreements make countries adversaries.
Sometimes calling them adversaries makes for disagreements. And the
Bush administration is far more inclined than its predecessor to
see China, Russia and North Korea in particular as cold war-style
adversaries, rather than potential partners. The abrupt expulsion
last week of scores of Russians accused of spying, retaliation for
the discovery of an alleged F.B.I. mole, showed clearly that this
administration is prepared to address Russia in cold-war style.

 But it is also true that the image overseas of America as the
"indispensable" power, in Madeleine K. Albright's famous phrase,
has evolved. America may still be supreme — and the most desired
partner if interests can be made to coincide — but many lesser
powers, including some with substantial resentments, are not quite
so wary of offending it.

 Take the Middle East, where eight years ago Saddam Hussein had
been vanquished, but the Arab coalition that had fought him still
trembled at his name. It had nowhere to turn for security but to
America. In 1993, even Yasir Arafat had to turn to peace talks with
Israel, which gained him America's blessing. Now, as a new
Palestinian uprising and the crumbling of sanctions against Iraq
attest, there are alternatives to doing America's bidding on all
the key regional questions — and Arab leaders are at least
exploring them.

 Something similar is happening in Eastern Europe, where a
resurgent Russian nationalism has spurred President Vladimir V.
Putin, despite Russia's economic weakness, to rebuild relationships
with other former Soviet republics in hopes of slowing NATO's
expansion. It is happening in the Americas, where President Hugo
Chavez of Venezuela has helped lead OPEC to a new solidarity based
on higher oil prices. 

 That is why President Bush's agenda last week was so interesting.
A new hand in foreign affairs was confronting some of the most
serious and fastest-changing challenges to the way America works
its will across the globe. He met with the prime ministers of
Israel and Japan, and with China's deputy prime minister.
Meanwhile, NATO was facing decisions about how to quell the latest
Balkan fighting, and the almighty American economy was giving the
world jitters.

 Here are several glimpses of how these challenges look from
outside Washington, or at least outside the White House, and of why
the new American president may not have the last word on how they
work out.   
            
          
     
      
 
 
 
   
      

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/25/weekinreview/25CHAR.html?ex=986530425&ei=1&en=19465e27fd7405a1

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