Plasma Pool

Icon

a set of sharp and cogent notes

drink deep

Jun 5, 2009 1

Obama On Islam: Reduction and Relevance in Political Rhetoric

Politics

Kevin Hilke

U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech “to the Muslim world” from Cairo University earlier this week has provoked a variety of predictable reactions from the right, most of which impugn Obama for admitting points of view other than that of U.S. interest when thinking through global affairs. By this rationale, Obama’s admission that the Islamic societies of the past were crucial to generating and preserving the ideas that underpin what we call “the west” becomes nothing more than a sheepish “apology” to “terrorists.” Criticism from the left has been almost as uniformly boring and predictable. An intriguing and problematic exception comes from Foreign Policy’s David Rothkopf, a former Clinton Administration official whose readings of events are often simultaneously refreshing and myopic.

Apr 7, 2009 0

Engagement Is a Policy

Politics

John Collins

Engagement can be seen as a tactic insofar as it helps us accomplish discrete goals, but after eight years of Bush’s Mideast bungling, vigorous engagement itself must be our foreign policy goal. Prior to a policy of concerted and constant engagement, we will be in the dark as to what our policy ought to be, as it will necessarily have to be directed towards positions and shaped by factors that we don’t currently understand. Seeking this understanding, though, is an active process that offers one significant agency and influence. Because our policy is rooted in our evolving understanding, engagement offers us major potential to deeply influence policy long before it’s made. Obama understands the potential to shape policy processes before they begin, and so has made engagement not just a policy, but the policy of the United States.

The Plasma Spring