For the U.N. audience, Obama is the anti-Bush

President Barack Obama's trip to the United Nations this week is the most significant by a U.S. president since September 2002. That year, President George W. Bush challenged the world body to prove its continued "relevance," by enforcing its resolutions against Iraq. Many foreign diplomats, meanwhile, advocated a posture of "dual containment" – that is, of Iraq and the United States. The subsequent breakdown of Security Council consensus brought U.S.-UN relations to their lowest point since 1945.

Obama's task today is at once easier and more daunting than Bush's. The new president sails into New York on a wave of global goodwill. Proclaiming an "era of engagement," he has returned the United States to a multilateral path, through steps both symbolic and concrete.

He has vowed to rededicate the United States to the international rule of law, engineered U.S. entry into the UN Human Rights Council, reenergized U.S. leadership on climate change, proposed reforms to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime, and declared his intent to submit for Senate ratification long-languishing treaties like the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Obama does not need to woo his UN audience. As the anti-Bush, he will have them at hello.
Bush, after all, was an instinctive unilateralist who approached his annual New York trip with the enthusiasm of a root canal patient.

Obama actually believes in multilateralism — and thus may have more to lose if it fails. He arrives in New York with massive global worries, including a sharp economic downturn, a fraying nuclear nonproliferation regime, and a shaky state-building mission in Afghanistan. His job is to persuade his rapt global audience that recent improvement in U.S.-UN relations cannot be taken for granted-and that multilateralism must deliver results that advance U.S. and global security.

A multilateral presidency
A premise of Obama's foreign policy is that the United States can advance its national interests best by working within global institutions. Rather than "criticizing from the sidelines," said U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice in a recent speech, the Obama administration will roll up its sleeves and try diplomacy at the United Nations. 

It aims to build international political will to tackle tough global challenges, she said, "by setting a tone of decency and mutual respect rather than condescension and contempt ... by abiding by the rules we expect others to follow ... and [by showing itself] willing to listen, respect differences, and consider new ideas."

The president's UN agenda is jammed. Beyond the traditional General Assembly speech, he will chair a special session of the Security Council on nuclear nonproliferation, participate in a summit on climate change, and join a side session on peacekeeping. His unifying theme will likely be the common responsibility of member states-including the United States-to address the world's most pressing problems.

The big question is whether his faith in the UN, and broader multilateral cooperation, is warranted. The balance sheet to date is mixed. At the Security Council, the Obama administration got the Chinese and Russians to agree to a fairly tough resolution on North Korea. On the Human Rights Council, the United States won a continuation of the special rapporteur on Sudan-by one vote. But progress on containing the Iranian nuclear program, on bringing peace and justice to Darfur, and on reaching a major climate change agreement remains elusive.

While this new tack of embracing multilateralism might not work, it is certainly worth a try. The Bush years showed the limits of unilateralism and inflexibility, which did little to arrest Iran's nuclear progress or stop Israel-bashing in the Human Rights Council. "If you think engagement is imperfect," declares U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, "try isolation."

Improved atmospherics are therefore necessary and welcome. But engagement must show results-and soon, because Obama's domestic audience needs to see that his investment in the United Nations actually pays tangible dividends.

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