{"id":17252,"date":"2013-12-02T05:30:46","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T10:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=17252"},"modified":"2013-12-01T14:12:17","modified_gmt":"2013-12-01T19:12:17","slug":"american-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/12\/american-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"American absence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In the course of a discussion of how Vladimir Putin is rebuilding Russia\u2019s Soviet-era spheres of influence, international affairs columnist Jackson Diehl raises yet another example of ineptness in American foreign policy.<\/p>\n

From Jackson Diehl: Georgia\u2019s westward course \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It was 10 years ago this month that Mikheil Saakashvili, then a 35-year-old U.S.-trained lawyer, led a march on the parliament of Georgia that overturned a corrupt and autocratic regime in that post-Soviet Caucasian state and inaugurated a liberal democratic surge in Eurasia. The \u201cRose Revolution\u201d was followed a year later by Ukraine\u2019s \u201cOrange revolution\u201d; the brash and charismatic Saakashvili soon became Georgia\u2019s elected president and a symbol of pro-Western change, as despised in Moscow as he was admired in Washington.<\/p>\n

\n

A decade later, the wave has receded. Last week, Ukraine, led by the same thuggish pol who had been ousted by the Orange revolt, backed away from an association agreement with the European Union and embraced Vladimir Putin\u2019s Kremlin. It followed Armenia, which succumbed to Putin\u2019s heavy-handed pressure earlier this fall. Only Moldova and Saakashvili\u2019s Georgia are now pursuing deals with the E.U. and the embrace of democracy and free markets they require. . . .<\/p>\n

Putin bullies his neighbors with trade embargoes or, in Georgia\u2019s case, military pressure, while offering tempting rewards to rulers whose commitment to liberalism is negotiable. \u201cPutin\u2019s soft power is corruption,\u201d said Saakashvili. \u201cIf you want to go to the European Union you have to pass all these painful reforms so that you can fit in. For the Eurasian Union you only need to be weak and corrupt and willing to be manipulated by Putin. You can imprison your opposition and be praised for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other difference is in the United States. In the 1990s, the Clinton administration strongly pushed Eastern European nations toward NATO and the E.U. Now it is Putin who is pushing, and the United States is absent<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not that Russia is so strong,\u201d Saakashvili said. \u201cIt\u2019s the perception of American weakness and American absence. The perception of Russia now is that no matter what they do in our region, America is not going to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notice that this compares Obama\u2019s foreign policy unfavorably not to that of Republicans but to that of Bill Clinton.\u00a0 Is this \u201cAmerican absence\u201d the same kind of foreign disentanglement that some conservatives and libertarians are calling for?<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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