If there was upside to White House foreign policy this past week, I didn’t see it. Since the inauguration, the complaint has been that the president never switched from campaigning to governing. Now that administration plans for foreign policy and national security are finally starting to emerge it looks pretty much like an extension of the campaign – lots of talk. The president’s preferred strategy appears to be, what is called in the current jargon, “soft” power or “smart” power, which places a premium on negotiations and international institutions to get things done. Sadly, we are seeing scant signs that the strategy is working.

Last month, Obama officially abandoned plans to build a long-range missile defense site in Western Europe. This move was largely interpreted as a gift to the Russians, paving the way for arms control negotiations and Moscow’s cooperation on forcing Iran to abandon its missile and nuclear weapons programs. Last week we had plenty of evidence that the initiative failed to gain much Russian cooperation. Not only did Moscow offer nothing in return for cancelling third site, they told the U.S. to “go slow” on pressuring Iran; obtained new concessions from the U.S. by gaining the right to additional inspections of U.S. nuclear facilities; and lodged a forceful complaint over U.S.-Ukrainian talks. Meanwhile, it is increasingly clear that U.S. allies in Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic and Poland, were deeply angered by the American decision to abandon the missile defense project.

Meanwhile, U.S. efforts to directly negotiate with Iran appear to be heading for a train wreck as well. Heritage Middle East expert Jim Phillips noted that “[h]opes for a quick diplomatic breakthrough in the long-running stalemate over Iran’s nuclear weapons program have been dimmed by Iranian backtracking on a tentative agreement reached on October 1 in Geneva and Iran’s foot-dragging on future negotiations. Reuters today quoted an anonymous senior Iranian official as saying ‘Time is on our side’ and declaring that Iran plans to slow-walk the diplomatic negotiations that will resume on October 19 by sending junior officials who do not have the authority to make firm commitments.” Clearly, Iran is using negotiations with the U.S. to buy time for advancing its missile and nuclear programs.

More bad news for speaking loudly and carrying a small stick from Latin America. In Honduras, ousted socialist President Zelaya is not only back in the country, but it looks like he will return to power. Incredibility, the U.S. actually sided with Zelaya who tried to usurp power by subverting the country’s constitution.

The administration also offered another example that it never met an international treaty it didn’t like. On Wednesday, Secretary Clinton declared the White House would back an arms trafficking treaty. Heritage’s Ted Bromund writes, “As we have noted before, the arms trade treaty is a dangerous multilateral mistake in the making. But the Secretary’s announcement adds a new layer of error. The U.S., as the Secretary noted, has the highest standards on arms exports in the world. In any negotiations on the arms trade, the U.S. is therefore the state most likely to disrupt the consensus. Far from being a weapon for the U.S. to use against states with low standards, the demand for consensus – which the U.S. has no power to enforce – will in the negotiations be turned against the U.S., and will be used to exert pressure on America to lower its own standards for the sake of concluding a weak treaty.” If the treaty goes into effect more than likely more arms will flow into the hands of criminals and terrorists – not less.

The grade for the week is “D” for dumb, for thinking all talk will make the world safer.

Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.

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About the author

James Jay Carafano PhD
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., is a leading expert in defense affaires, intelligence, military operations and strategy, and homeland security at the Heritage Foundation.