He has lifted restrictions on Cuban-Americans’ returning to their homeland and on the amount of money they can send to family in Cuba. Obama has left the impression he is ready to do even more to repair the half-century of estrangement should the Castro brothers improve their treatment of dissidents.
He has shaken hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, disregarding the leftist president’s vitriolic attacks on the US during the Bush years.
CHINA RELATIONS
He has also made known that China’s poor human rights record, while still important to Washington, is not the defining issue in the countries’ relationship.
He has reprimanded North Korea for its test launch of what was seen as a ballistic missile capable of carrying one of its handful or nuclear warheads toward the US or one of its allies. At the same time, he stressed a determination to bring the North back into negotiations to rid the divided Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons.
He has sought to reset relations with Russia to reverse a dangerous slide under Bush. Obama’s effort turns on an offer of negotiations on a nuclear reduction treaty to replace the START II pact that expires soon.
Obama has also gone out of his way on important and early travel to Europe and Latin America to acknowledge what he viewed as past US errors in relations with both regions.
He has conceded that fault for the deep recession gripping the globe had its origins, in part at least, in unregulated greed among the US’ financial barons and freewheeling, credit-card fueled spending by US consumers.
He has ordered the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, closed within 12 months and rejected interrogation techniques used by the Bush administration that have been viewed broadly as torture.
Most dramatically, Obama released memos from the Bush Justice Department that gave legal cover for “enhanced interrogation” techniques. Obama said he would not rule out a decision by the Department of Justice to launch an investigation of those who issued those legal rulings.
It’s quite a start, but there’s a long way to go.
Will Obama be overwhelmed by what Kissinger says is a broad diplomatic agenda that is still fuzzy about how it can be achieved?
It’s easy to set lofty goals, but much harder to bring them to fruition.
RSS