Smart Power/Power Vacuum

As Israeli forces move deep into Palestine territory, storming Gaza City in the 17th day of this yet another heightened conflict between two mortal enemy states, America’s hand is tied and rendered mostly inutile on the background. That’s what happens when the most powerful country in the world is currently on a major transitional stage, with still about 7 days to go before the new president-elect in Sen. Barack Obama is to be inaugurated and officially declared as President of the United States of America. In this manner, there is an instance of a power vacuum, a very serious matter, since with the hegemonic presence of America had been ever-patent in the Bush years, 8 full years of them, and so suddenly, such presence becomes minimized like a balloon emptied of air.

Maybe it is just coincidental. Maybe not. Israel pushes hard against Hamas which had been allegedly rocketing Israeli territory on a day-in and day-out basis. Usually, America would immediately be up on its toes to calm the worsening situation, especially when Lebanon and ever-tenacious Iran are complicating matters. But President George W. Bush is just busy trying to hand down power as of the moment, even if the Mideast situation is at peak point once again.

Now, Sen. Obama is promising to handle the Israeli-Palestinian issue right on day one and even as we speak now, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton is already having an engagement scheme in mind, one that she calls “smart power” strategy, which should be in line with Obama’s much-touted foreign policy objectives of verging away from a highly military foreign policy and towards the so-called regular diplomatic engagements, meaning to say, by going to the table and have talks.

I remember how Pres. Bush had once lambasted this kind of strategy, saying that it is but foolish to ever expect or much-less anticipate international entities like Tehran and Pyongyang to come to terms with by merely talking. Talk is cheap the Republican says, as even Sen. John McCain, the losing candidate in the last U.S. Presidential Elections had echoed this Bush sentiment.

I always thought that diplomatic engagement is almost always the best primary tool in resolving international conflicts, even when guns have already been fired. On the one hand, I have some feeling that these times are merely similar to other times in the past where words and talks are merely air, and every party is almost always willing to pull the trigger at the nearest instance.