How the world sees Bush I
The legacy of Bush Senior gives foreign leaders an
idea of what to expect. TIME. com's Tony Karon offers a
thumbnail sketch of hopes and fears.
Whether they like him or not, at least the rest of
the world believes they already know President-elect Ge
orge W. Bush. The reason is obvious: He's relying mostl
y on the heavy hitters of his father's administration t
o manage his foreign powers has been the certainty of c
ontinuity—either with the Clinton administration or wit
h the Bush administration that preceded it. Moscow, Bei
jing, Tokyo, Paris, London, the Middle Eastern power pl
ayers and all the others believe they know what to expe
ct of the new administration, and that removes the disc
omforts of uncertainty. They all filed the diplomatical
ly de rigueur congratulations overnight, and their expr
essions of confidence in the new Bush administration we
re likely heartfelt—officials around the world reminisc
ed enthusiastically about the scion of a president best
remembered as a sober and steady hand on the tiller of
foreign policy.
Reasons to fear, reasons to cheer
But whether they have good reason to be cheerful ab
out Bush's victory differs from region to region. After
all, the President-elect and his advisers made clear th
roughout the campaign that they will manage foreign pol
icy on the basis of national interest, rather than the
fuzzier humanitarian concepts erratically invoked by a
Clinton administration that failed to establish a cohes
ive foreign policy vision. |