The Foreign View

This time next year, polls across the nation will close and vote-tallying will begin as the 2008 presidential election reaches its heated climax. By the end of the evening, one party and one candidate will emerge victorious. One fact is clear: Whoever becomes the new president will have difficult challenges, especially in the realm of foreign policy.

The concept that “politics ends at the water’s edge” has been forever dispelled by the rise of interest groups like MoveOn.org and AIPAC that press forward with their own foreign policy agendas. The rise of these coalitions has played heavily into increased politization of foreign policy, something seen strongly during the Vietnam War and that has reemerged in the debate over American military actions in Iraq.

Yet this view only focuses on the domestic side of the issues, what we as Americans see and read about in the typical news story. And there is no doubt that the World section here at Scoop08 will do that.

But what about the foreign perspective on American foreign policy? Does the rest of the world really hate us over Iraq? What do citizens in Israel, Iran, Egypt, Australia, Great Britain, and dozens of other nations think of America’s global role in the 21st century? Why does Mayor Ken Livingstone of London, England express his disgust at the Bush Administration while Mayor Edi Rama of Tirana, the capital of Albania, express his deep love for the president of the United States? Herein lies our goal here at the World section of Scoop08: Go beyond the stereotypes of American foreign policy as we see it to look at the real intricacies and nuances of public thought worldwide. With student reporters spanning the globe, we want to explore deeper questions regarding America’s position in the world. What do foreign citizens want to see in the next president of the United States? How would these citizens like to see American foreign policy change or, in some instances, remain the same?

During this past year, I have had a multitude of opportunities to witness what foreigners think of the United States, of our current administration, and of our politics and public policy more broadly. Visiting Italy in March, the tell-tale signs of protests against the War in Iraq were everywhere. Anger in Italy has remained high following the death in March 2005 of Nicola Calipari, a secret agent killed by U.S. troops near Baghdad airport while escorting a freed hostage, and the ensuing withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq in September 2005. Americans are still welcomed by the Italian people, however, who appear to differentiate between an American government that they oppose and the American people.

Things were much different when I traveled to Eastern Europe. Poland, which has maintained troops in Iraq since March 2003, was much more pro-American and supportive of the administration’s current foreign policies. During my stay in Poland, I went to see Auschwitz-Birkenau, the infamous Nazi concentration camp in Southwestern Poland that was the final resting place for nearly 1.1 million people, mostly Jews and Slavs. The camp has now been transformed into a museum to honor those who died at the hands of the Nazis and to ensure that their memory is never forgotten.

In a barrack at the camp that once housed hundreds of prisoners, I had the chance to speak with Miroslaw Obstarczyk, Curator for the Exhibition Department at Auschwitz. He was quick to make comparisons between the United States in World War II and the United States in Iraq. For Obstarczyk, the United States was the liberator that ended Nazi oppression during World War II and he felt as strongly about what he considered a “liberation” of Iraq. Had the United States not acted, atrocities by the Nazis in Europe and the Baathists in Iraq would have continued unabated, he said, offering his full support of the administration’s actions.

What causes these differences in perception of the United States? One might consider the different lenses of history through which each of these countries analyzes the actions and motives of the United States. Many Poles are still grateful to the United States for their liberation from the entrenched Communist regime, much as Albanians support the United States for defending human rights in the Balkans during the 1990s.

Does that mean that we can generalize that Eastern Europe and the Balkans tend to be more pro-American while Western Europe tends to be more anti-American? I don’t think that we can, but this is just one of the things that we hope to analyze over the coming 12 months here at the World section of Scoop08. We look forward to your patronage over this year, and hope that you’ll stay tuned as our reporters span the globe, looking for that fresh global perspective on America and our modern world.