Grading the President

John Lewis Gaddis offers an upbeat assessment of George W. Bushs security doctrine in A Grand Strategy of Transformation (FOREIGN POLICY, November/December 2002). Four of the presidential candidates for the Democratic nomination in 2004 explain what they would do differently in If I Were President . . . (FOREIGN POLICY, March/April 2003). Foreign journalists rank the performance of Secretary of State Colin Powell in The Secretary at Midterm (Foreign Service Journal, March 2003) and National Journal offers a report card on the entire cabinet in Grading the Cabinet (January 24, 2003). For a look at how the world rated Bushs predecessor, see Grading the President (FOREIGN POLICY, Winter 19978).

Former South African President Nelson Mandela accused Bush of wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust in Mandela Blasts U.S. Policy Towards Iraq (Accra Mail, January 30, 2003). Makwaia Kuhenga examines why most other African governments have been comparatively restrained in their criticisms of U.S. policy in As the World Speaks Out, Why Is Africa Silent? (East African, February 17, 2003). James N. Karioki examines Bushs revival of the Cold War doctrine of with us or against us in The World Has Refused To Be Cowed by Uncompromising U.S. (Sunday Times, April 13, 2003). Martin Mbugua Kimani argues that it is in East Africas interest to support the United States in Forget the Peace Rhetoric, EA Must Back Bush (East African, February 24, 2003).

Peoples Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper in China, assesses the consequences of the U.S. victory in Iraq in Personal View: After U.S. Hawks Get the Upper Hand (April 18, 2003). Frank Ching examines emerging tensions in War in Iraq: A Wedge Between China and the U.S. (South China Morning Post, April 2, 2003). An editorial in the Hong Kongbased Standard urges the Bush administration not to deal with North Korea by military means in Throw Lifelines, Not Bombs (April 28, 2003).

Many East Europeans saw parallels between Iraq and their own struggle against totalitarian rule. Among those who expressed their support for Bushs stance on Iraq were Adam Michnik in Nie bylo wyboru (There Was No Choice, Gazeta Wyborcza, March 21, 2003), Vaclav Havel in David Remnicks Exit Havel: The King Leaves the Castle (New Yorker, February 1724, 2003), and Gyrgy Konrd in Warum ich fr den Irak-Krieg bin (Why I Am for the War in Iraq, Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung, February 26, 2003). Their pro-Bush standpoint received strong criticism from Old Europe. Notably, novelist Gnter Grass argued in the Polish press that Bush is a greater menace than Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ever was in Wojowniczy Bush grozba dla Ameryki (Belligerent Bush as a Threat to America, Gazeta Wyborcza, April 14, 2003).

Len Krauze explores the role of faith in George W. Bushs political life in El mesas de Midland (The Messiah of Midland, Letras Libres, April 2003). Moiss Nam challenges the Bush administration to promote trade in the Western Hemisphere in Saving Latin America (FOREIGN POLICY, November/December 2002). And former Mexican Minister for Foreign Affairs Jorge Castaeda explores the current state of U.S.Latin American relations in The Forgotten Relationship (Foreign Affairs, May/June 2003).

Aluf Benn casts a critical eye on the Bush administrations role as peacemaker in Bush Moves an Inch on the Mideast (Salon, March 19, 2003). Edward Said asks What Is Happening to the United States? (Al-Ahram Weekly, April 2430, 2003) and denounces Bush as the moral equivalent of a cowboy sheriff. Ray Takeyh argues that Bushs tough rhetoric against Tehran could prove self-defeating in Bushs Hard Line Trips Up the Reformers in Iran (Los Angeles Times, August 9, 2002).

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev lambasts the United States for waging a felonious war, declaring that America Needs a Perestroika, and U.N. Funeral Is Way Too Premature (Novaya Gazeta, No. 21, March 24, 2003). Vyachelsav Nikonov says that Russias partnership with the United States is more important than friendships with dictators such as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in The Puzzle of Iraq (Trud, September 21, 2002). Sergei Karaganov offers an analysis of Russias handling of the Bush administration in Some Lessons From the Iraqi Crisis (The Moscow Times, April 25, 2003). Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov stresses Russias desire for smoothing over relations in A Russian Resolve for Peace and Partnership (Washington Post, March 15, 2003).

India Today presents a collection of essays on how the worldand specifically Indiashould deal with the United States after the downfall of Saddam in U.S. Policy: The World According to Bush (April 28, 2003). Arundhati Roy claims Bush-bashing is fun, because he makes such an easy, sumptuous target in her essay U.S Reveals Its True Imperial Colours (Sunday Times, April 6, 2003). Many Pakistani exiles have criticized the Bush administration for making common cause with Gen. Pervez Musharrafs regime, most notably former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in A Chameleon Ally in Pakistan (Christian Science Monitor, February 5, 2002). The resignation of the U.S. ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, allegedly over the Bush administrations refusal to take a tougher pro-India line on Kashmir, has sparked extensive commentary in the Indian press, most notably U.S. Envoy Blackwill Pays For His Pro-India Line (Indian Express, April 22, 2003).

Philip Bowring thinks the time has come for East Asia to reevaluate its position vis–vis the United States in Time to Rethink East Asias Strategic Interests (South China Morning Post, March 24, 2003). However, others argue that it is in their countrys national interest to back the United States, as Singapores Mark Hong does in Pragmatism Means Backing the Right Horse (Straits Times, March 26, 2003). Tony Parkinson believes the changes wrought by the September 11 terrorist attacks leave the United States little choice but to pursue a more activist foreign policy in Yes, The World Has Changed Profoundly (The Age, September 7, 2002). Kumar Ramakrishna proposes that the United States needs a more sophisticated approach to dealing with terrorism in the region, in U.S. Anti-Terror Strategy Needs a Rethink (Straits Times, August 27, 2002).

Opposing French and British perspectives on the Bush doctrine can be found in How Should Europe Respond to the New America? (Prospect, April 2003), a debate between Charles Grant and Franois Heisbourg. The depths to which trans-Atlantic relations have sunk were demonstrated by a French opinion poll, taken midwar, which showed that only 34 percent of those questioned were supporting the coalition (French Harden Their Opposition to War In Iraq, Manchester Guardian Weekly, April 16, 2003). In his 2003 Harkness lecture, After Iraq: America and Europe, William Shawcross argues that European attempts to hobble the United States will undermine if not destroy its own security.