Atlantic Council

Editor's note: We polled several friends of the Atlantic Council last week on the question What are the top foreign policy priorities for the next president?   We'll be running their responses all week.

Restore respect for America and confidence in its leadership:  Although expectations are high that a new American president will improve the tone in America’s relations around the world, there are certain steps that the new President can take that will send a strong signal that this is the case.  Those include that the U.S. will abide by and honor the Geneva Conventions, that it will close Guantanamo prison, that it will play a leadership role in addressing climate change and energy security, that it will find ways to address war crimes and genocide that parallel the essence of the Rome Treaty and that it will collaborate on identifying and addressing the root causes of terrorism and work to eliminate this threat.

Collaborate internationally to address the financial crisis:  U.S. leadership on this issue is widely sought.  The new president must take the lead not only in solving the problems in the U.S., but in working with international counterparts to frame new standards and formulate new mechanisms to address the problems and prevent their recurrence.  This is especially important, given the widespread belief that lax U.S. regulations precipitated the worldwide crisis.

Address issues important to individuals around the globe:  Ordinary people are increasingly demanding from their governments that issues such as health, education, hunger, nutrition, clean water be addressed as a matter or urgent government priority.  Traditional foreign policy focused largely on state-to-state relations must include how governments can collaborate to bring resources and expertise to bear to address these issues as a greater priority.  This can best be accomplished with strong institutions, rule of law and good governance.  The new president can galvanize like-minded nations to devote expertise and resources to programs on issues that matter to every country’s voters.  Programs to counter corruption, trafficking in persons, narcotics use and trafficking and other criminality can be greatly energized with new and articulate U.S. leadership.

Create new arms control mechanisms to prevent nuclear proliferation and reduce WMD dangers:  The end of the Cold War did not automatically eliminate the threat posed by nuclear and other weapons arsenals.  Some remaining weapons are not at all well protected.  The Bush Administration rush to dismantle treaties and eliminate U.S. treaty obligations has left a dangerous void.  The new Administration should inventory existing arms control regimes and take the initiative to develop a new framework for international agreements that establishes a new arms control regime that takes into account current nuclear and other weapons holdings.  This could even mean negotiating an agreement to replace or up-date the NPT, to take into account the urgent need to control weapons of countries who have not signed the NPT..

Establish frameworks in which regional conflicts can be resolved:  Even as the international community must address global issues as a higher priority, there remain regional conflicts that can prove dangerous, as we saw with Georgia.  At the top of this should be the Middle East issues: Israel-Palestine, Israel-Syria, Iraq.  Lingering conflicts in former Soviet areas (Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh), Kashmir, the Balkans and Africa are just a few of the problems that would benefit from leadership from a more trusted, inspiring and activist American president.

Beth Jones is a member of the Atlantic Council Board of Directors. Debate word cloud from Flickr user EricaJoy, used under Creative Commons license.