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Obama and the Summit of the Americas: One Eye Wide Open, Another Shut
By Kaufmann | April 16, 2009 1 Comment »
President Obama has just written an op-ed for over a dozen newspapers throughout the Americas, in the eve of the Fifth Summit of the Americas that is about to take place in Trinidad & Tobago.
This is significant. I care deeply about the Latin America and the rest of hemisphere, and wanted to write about the upcoming Summit. Yet until now what we had was a draft Summit “Declaration” which the country leaders and their (Foreign Ministerial?) teams had been belaboring for a couple of years.
That draft “Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain” is a travesty. It is interminable and practically devoid of concreteness or substance. It would be funny if we wouldn’t be in the midst of a major economic crisis, one which is expected to hit South America particularly hard in the coming months. Andres Oppenheimer has commented on that draft, labeling it as a joke.
I really hope we are pleasantly surprised by a show of leadership in tomorrow’s Summit, with this draft ‘Declaration’ having been thrown out, and accountability prevailing: let us dream that a very concise and concrete statement may be agreed by the leaders of the Americas tomorrow. One which is in tune with our dire times, and with the aspirations of the citizens. Let me therefore stop here on the draft ‘Declaration’.
Instead, let us focus on what Obama wrote today. It gives a glimmer of hope that there will be some substance and leadership, even if partial.
In his op-ed, President Obama stresses that it is 21st century engagement and solutions what is needed, finally moving away from the past century. He provides a strong signal regarding a more constructive and sustained partnership with the region in general, and starts by focusing on the need to update the US-Cuba relationship. And he supports an expanded lendig role of the Inter-American Development Bank (the IDB), remaining silent on the roles of the World Bank and the IMF. Obama also calls for forward-looking initiatives on renewable energy and climate.
Not surprisingly, he states his support human rights, liberty, and the Inter-American Democratic Charter, sending a message to all Cuban citizens (and Cuban-Americans) and beyond. On the mammoth security challenge facing the region, it is noteworthy that Obama explicitly states that:
‘Our efforts start at home. By reducing demand for drugs and curtailing the illegal flow of weapons and bulk cash south across our border, we can advance security in the United States and beyond.’
This does matter, and may not be mere rhetoric. Any moment now, in his ongoing visit to Mexico, Obama may be announcing during his meeting with President Felipe Calderon that he will push for ratification of the Inter-American Arms Trafficking Treaty. The aim would be to begin to address the enormous flow of arms to drug cartels and other armed groups that flow southwards from the US to Mexico.
Some perspective is in order: this Treaty has been sitting idly at the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee for well over a decade. Obama’s push may be a useful first step, but much more concrete catch up is still needed. The Senate would have to ratify it, and effective implementation would need to take place.
And then, complementary measures will be critical. It is still extremely easy to obtain and carry guns in the US. Given the power of narrow lobby interests (e.g. the National Rifle Association, or NRA), the current political environment conspires against imminent changes tightening gun control laws in the US which would be consistent with 21st century practice.
And a strategic revamp is also required in the US on the huge problem of drug consumption. It is an important step for the Obama administration to say that such challenges ’at home’ do matter for security in the Americas — finally coming to terms with the fact that the drug war is not only a drug producing country problem confined to Colombia or Mexico. It is a major US responsibility and problem as well. But again, this is only a start, because addressing the drug consumption problem in the US also requires 21st century solutions. That requires a different strategy.
So we should ask for details on the US proposals to practically address the problems of gun control and drug consumption — well beyond merely re-activating a very old treaty sitting in the Senate.
Also of importance is to focus on what is glaringly missing from Obama’s op-ed.
First and foremost on what is ‘missing in action’: not a word about trade. In the wake of protectionist tendencies as of late, where the US has been a culprit, the silence on trade is deafening.
Let us keep in mind that to date the only Summit of the Americas that was of any significance was in fact the very first one. It was held in Miami in 1994, when the Free Trade Agreement for the Americas (FTAA) was first proposed and work started.
Here we are, fifteen years later. We have gone backwards on trade. Sadly, the discussions now is mostly focused on petty and specific bilateral deals on one product tariff here, another there, by this country or another. The strategy towards trade also needs a full revamp instead. Silence about restarting serious trade reforms during this Summit would be irresponsible.
In fact, drawing from 20th Century experiences in Economic Development we learned that aid cannot be a substitute for trade. We should apply such lesson in the 21st Century, rather than reverting back and merely making politically convenient noises to let one institution (the IDB) give more money to the region.
The second ’missing in action’ issue in Obama’s op-ed refers to the need address explicitly the huge challenge of political and economic inequality within countries in the Americas. It is time to acknowledge that such inequality has been related to elite capture (including, but not only, in the US, the chief culprit of the current crisis), and also to crime, and even to the undermining of democratic institutions in some Latin American countries.
Of course these are politically sensitive issues, which very recently were also left under the rug at the G-20 Summit. Yet they cannot be avoided much longer — if there is a commitment to understand the fundamental determinants of the current challenges facing the region, and what needs to be done about them.
[Click here for the blog entry right after the Summit conclusion]
Topics: Aid Effectiveness, Corruption, G-20, Rule of Law, Voice and Human Rights, capture, financial crisis | | 1 Comment
April 18th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
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