Foreign Policy.
In
foreign affairs, the central challenge now facing President Barack Obama is how to regain
some of the ground lost in recent years in shaping U.S. national security
policy. Historically and politically, in
America's system of separation of powers, it is the president who has the greatest
leeway for decisive action in foreign affairs. He is viewed by the country as
responsible for Americans' safety in an increasingly turbulent world. He is seen as
the ultimate definer of the goals that the United States should pursue through
its diplomacy, economic leverage, and, if need be, military compulsion. And the
world at large sees him -- for better or for worse -- as the authentic voice of
America.
To be
sure, he is not a dictator. Congress has a voice. So does the public. And so do
vested interests and foreign-policy lobbies. The congressional role in
declaring war is especially important not when the United States is the victim
of an attack, but when the United States is planning to wage war abroad. Because
America is a democracy, public support for presidential foreign-policy
decisions is essential. But no one in the government or outside it can match
the president's authoritative voice when he speaks and then decisively acts for
America.
This is
true even in the face of determined opposition. Even when some lobbies succeed
in gaining congressional support for their particular foreign clients in
defiance of the president, for instance, many congressional signatories still quietly
convey to the White House their readiness to support the president if he stands
firm for "the national interest." And a president who is willing to do so
publicly, while skillfully cultivating friends and allies on Capitol Hill, can
then establish such intimidating credibility that it is politically unwise to
confront him. This is exactly what Obama needs to do now.
