Foreign Sensibilities Drive Foreign Policy

This commentary by Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek speaks to the issue of identity and personal experiences regarding ones ability to better empathize and understand those who live in or come from foreign lands.

Zakaria is talking about whether Obama's identity and upbringing are of significance with regards to foreign policy, and comes to the conclusion, despite all else, that they are.

Obama's argument is about more than identity. He was intelligent and prescient about the costs of the Iraq War. But he says that his judgment was formed by his experience as a boy with a Kenyan father—and later an Indonesian stepfather—who spent four years growing up in Indonesia, and who lived in the multicultural swirl of Hawaii.

I never thought I'd agree with Obama. I've spent my life acquiring formal expertise on foreign policy. I've got fancy degrees, have run research projects, taught in colleges and graduate schools, edited a foreign-affairs journal, advised politicians and businessmen, written columns and cover stories, and traveled hundreds of thousands of miles all over the world. I've never thought of my identity as any kind of qualification. I've never written an article that contains the phrase "As an Indian-American ..." or "As a person of color ..."

But when I think about what is truly distinctive about the way I look at the world, about the advantage that I may have over others in understanding foreign affairs, it is that I know what it means not to be an American. I know intimately the attraction, the repulsion, the hopes, the disappointments that the other 95 percent of humanity feels when thinking about this country. I know it because for a good part of my life, I wasn't an American. I was the outsider, growing up 8,000 miles away from the centers of power, being shaped by forces over which my country had no control.

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I couldn't do my job well without the expertise. But any insights I have are thoroughly informed by the perspective and judgment that I've gained from being first a foreigner, then a foreign student, then an aspiring immigrant and now an American. My biography has helped me put my book learning in context, made for a richer interaction with foreigners and helped me see the world from many angles. So I understand what Obama means when he talks about his life and its lessons.

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We're moving into a very new world, one in which countries from Brazil to South Africa to India and China are getting richer, stronger and prouder. For America to thrive, we will have to develop a much deeper, richer, more intuitive understanding of them and their peoples. There are many ways to attain this, but certainly being able to feel it in your bones is one powerful way. Trust me on this. As a Ph.D. in international relations, I know what I'm talking about.

The writers on this blog will get this immediately. We're either from different countries or of different nationalities, but we've all lived abroad, and as such have developed sensibilities of which Zakaria writes that are felt in our bones.

It is why this blog even exists. We may not have Zakaria's educational background on international relations, but when you find yourself growing up amidst so many nationalities, you cannot help but develop a better understanding of the world around you. As an American, it was clear to me growing up that the world did not revolve around America, yet American arrogance pervaded international politics. But this isn't about American bashing, it is about recognizing the sensibilities of others, what makes other people tick, why they live and work and play and pray like they do. Some of that can be learned in a classroom. Some of it can only be learned through shared experiences.

I don't know whether Barack Obama would be a better president than Hillary Clinton, but they definitely come from different backgrounds, and those backgrounds do matter when it comes to a great many things that require good judgement. Let's hope that Americans have the good judgement to recognize that over the coming months.

Bhutto Assassination Tragic and Inevitable

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is tragic news.

But it seems as if it was inevitable.

Her return to Pakistan in October began with the bang of another assassination attempt that killed scores of supporters.

It is a wonder to me sometimes that there are some brave enough to literally put their neck on the line, or as fate would have it, in the line of a bullet, to pursue a political role in so many of the world's countries. Assassinations don't just cut down a life, they too often take a dagger to the hopes of millions, and sometimes start a war.

Pakistan has been viewed by many as the country of biggest concern in that part of the world, not Iran. They have nuclear weapons and an historically fragile government. With Bhutto's assassination, there is great fear the country falls into a turmoil that only serves to strengthen radical influences unsympathetic to the West.

Musharraf will have his hands full. The next few months will be critical.