Let's Talk About Empire

Foreign Policy In Focus asked its senior analysts to weigh in on the future course of American foreign policy. This is the question they responded to: "The enormous challenges facing us — economic crisis, climate crisis, nuclear proliferation — require unprecedented global cooperation. Will President Barack Obama draw down the American empire in order to meet these challenges? Or will he do what he can to maintain empire in a different form?"

Sarah Anderson

We may get some early hints when Obama walks up to the podium at the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Trinidad next month. What will he say surrounded by leaders who have chafed at U.S. domination in the realm of economy policy?

There will be Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who led the opposition to U.S. efforts to impose its trade model on the rest of the hemisphere. The Brazilian president blasted the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) as an "annexation" agreement (only to be outdone by Hugo Chavez, who described it as a "cauldron of hell").

And there will be Cristina Kirchner, whose predecessor husband Nestor famously defied the U.S.-backed International Monetary Fund (IMF), threatening to default on loans rather than accept prescribed austerity measures in the middle of a meltdown.

The leaders of Ecuador and Bolivia, also expected in the Port of Spain, are both currently challenging U.S. investment treaties and pursuing their own alternative trade and investment models.

The Bush administration responded to these countries' concerns about the market fundamentalist model by treating them like upstarts with attitude problems. Robert Zoellick, then the U.S. trade representative and now World Bank president, dubbed Brazil the leader of the "won't do" countries. After 11 years of negotiations, Zoellick abandoned the FTAA in 2005 in favor of bilateral deals with countries more eager to embrace U.S. policies (or too weak to stand up to the global superpower). It was the Bush administration's "coalition of the willing" approach to trade.

Will Obama continue a "you're either with us or you're against us" approach to international economic policy? Here are a couple reasons to expect a less imperialist approach.  

First, as a senator, Obama was an original co-sponsor of the Jubilee Act, which would cancel the debts owed by impoverished countries to the World Bank and IMF — without the onerous, market-fundamentalist policy conditions these institutions have imposed on developing countries for nearly three decades. By endorsing this bill, Obama signaled some support (even before the global meltdown) for the notion that these financial institutions' "one-size-fits-all" formula for development should no longer reign supreme.

Second, on the campaign trail, Obama made detailed statements to fair trade activists that showed a measure of openness to some of the concerns raised by Latin American governments. For example, he said he would support the right of developing countries to protect small farmers from agricultural product dumping. He also committed to making some changes in the U.S. model for investment rules in trade agreements. Current rules allow foreign investors to sue for compensation over actions, including public interest regulations, which significantly diminish their profits. As candidate, Obama specifically stated that he would "amend NAFTA to make clear that fair laws and regulations written to protect citizens in any of the three countries cannot be overwritten simply at the request of foreign investors." 

Obama said recently that his plans for renegotiating NAFTA will need to be postponed due to the immediate pressures of the economic crisis. However, his pick for U.S. trade representative, Ron Kirk, has at least indicated that he doesn't plan on continuing the Bush administration's relentless expansion of the free-trade agenda. "I do not come to this job with what I have called in some of our meetings 'deal fever,'" Kirk said in his confirmation hearing.