Bush aims to lose isolationist image
US launches diplomatic offensive to clarify its policies on the Middle East and global warming
Special report: George Bush's America
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Saturday June 2, 2001
The Guardian
The Bush administration is making a major effort to dispel European notions that the United States is favouring an isolationist foreign policy.
The impression given by George Bush's presidential campaign was that his administration would not engage the US in issues outside its borders unless the interests of Americans were directly affected. It is now making a concerted diplomatic effort to counter that impression.
Mr Bush is to visit six European countries and the Nato headquarters next month to clarify his "vision" of American involvement in international issues. He will proclaim his desire to see a Europe that is "whole, free, and at peace".
There are also signs that it may rethink its policy on global warming and its rejection of the Kyoto protocol, which was intended to set ways of meeting targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Marc Grossman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs and the man with day-to-day responsibility for American diplomacy, said in Los Angeles last night that there had been a misconception about American foreign policy in regard to the Middle East and global warming.
The administration has been heavily criticised for withdrawing from the the Kyoto proposals. It has also drawn fire for appearing to have become semi-detached from the Middle East, a charge Mr Grossman strongly denied.
"I think the involvement of the US in the Middle East since the very beginning of this administration has been very intense," he said.
"The idea that the US was unengaged or [had] stepped back from being interested in the Middle East was just not right."
He also denied that the US had shown itself to be less concerned that the rest of the world about the harmful effects of global warming.
"What we have done is perhaps take less interest in the words and documents of the Kyoto treaty ... we don't want to sign up to anything that is not going to be possible for people to live up to, and might be damaging to the United States.
"There is a huge and very important cabinet review of our whole policy going on.
"Secretary [of State Colin] Powell and others have been participating on this with the president, so it's not that we are not interested in global warming. We are. We are just looking for a way ... to address that problem."
Mr Grossman said there had been been a "misconception" about the US position on the euro currency debate.
"We want the strongest possible currency in Europe," he said.
"People who thought that having the euro would drive us crazy are completely wrong. We want an economic system across the Atlantic that works successfully."
Tom Watson says, "I have seen no policy of President Bush that is the least bit isolationist." |
