President & Vice-Chancellor Lloyd Axworthy

Picking Up The Pieces

By LLOYD AXWORTHY
The Ottawa Citizen
January 20, 2009

Canadians are agog about Barack Obama’s imminent arrival in Ottawa for his first foreign trip as president. But before we become too immersed in preparing a laundry list of priority issues for discussion with the new American leader, a post mortem of the detritus of his predecessor is imperative. One of the most crucial tasks ahead will be rebuilding from the wreckage that he has left.

Just this last week in the dying days of the Bush administration we were reminded once again of the negative impact of his policies and how redress is essential. President Bush issued a forceful policy directive on the Arctic, boldly challenging Canada’s claims of sovereignty in the strongest language we’ve yet heard and eschewing any initiative to use the Arctic Council as the forum for bringing together all the nations and peoples of the circumpolar region to find solutions to the pressing problems brought forward by the rapidly melting ice.

Predictably, the document reinforced the current scramble to unilaterally resolve boundaries and claim resources, and bypassed the normal diplomatic courtesy of considering other nations’ claims, by proclaiming the Northwest Passage an international waterway.

This macho move ignored the pressing need to establish new and effective multilateral institutions and agreements that would bring about co-operative action on the complex environmental, transportation and development issues that exist in the fragile north.

This was a parting gesture symbolic of the long and reckless tenure of the Bush administration which has been marked by a disdain for collaboration, a propensity for ignoring the interests of others — even close neighbours — and a resistance to any efforts to build international institutions to manage issues of global significance. It typified what in my mind has been one of the most serious sins of the Bush administration: its opposition to building the governance architecture needed to meet the transcendent cross-border threats and challenges of the 21st century — what former UN secretary general Kofi Annan has called “problems without passports.”

Failure to respond

The tragic litany of Mr. Bush’s failures to respond to emerging global issues in an appropriate way can be traced to his predilection for confronting problems with military might, his fundamental antipathy for international institutions and agreements, and a deep ideological belief in the marketplace to solve all economic issues. He has consistently employed a go-it-alone philosophy, effectively estranging America from close allies and from the international community at large.

In the fight against terrorism, rather than building international collaboration on the strengths of beliefs and practices based on the rule of law and human rights standards, he forfeited these powerful tools by his use of torture and illegal imprisonment.

This abandonment of the values that challenged the ideologies of fanatics and dictators, coupled with the invasion of Iraq, have only fuelled further extremism.

One of President Bush’s earliest decisions was to rescind America’s signature to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the most important new institution of this century designed to advance human rights and international justice.

And he stood by while Canada and other likeminded countries worked to establish an international agreement on the doctrine of “responsibility to protect” (R2P) which declares that the international community has a responsibility to step in when governments prove unable or unwilling to protect their citizens from situations of mass atrocity.

The ongoing tragedies in Darfur and the Congo are a vivid demonstration that the application of the principles of R2P is urgently needed. The apparent willingness of the Obama administration to employ smart diplomacy is a welcome sign that consolidated global efforts to address these issues may regain momentum.

Time and again President Bush undermined efforts underway at the United Nations and elsewhere to gain consensus on shared global challenges such as climate change, nuclear proliferation and the international food crisis. And needless to say the breakdown of the global economy is a product of the deliberate dismantling of regulatory controls and a belief in untrammelled market forces for which we all are paying a grave price.

Is there any wonder that a reflection on the Bush years conjures up a vision of Nero fiddling as Rome burns?

In the years after the Second World War, a collaborative multilateral effort led by the United States created a network of international institutions and practices that were reflective of the needs of the times. We must take inspiration from that creative process and regain the ground lost during the Bush years by overhauling the architecture needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

The American people have responded to the disaster of the last eight years by electing a new leader with multilateral instincts who appreciates the value of diplomacy and co-operation. President Barack Obama’s Canadian stop, therefore, provides us with an opportunity to deal not only with the important transactional issues that are currently on the agenda, but the deep structural flaws in our global system, too. Canada can bring skill and motivation to a partnership with the Obama administration in designing and creating this new architecture.

Canada could begin to show the way by asking for a rescinding of the presidential directive on the Arctic and by coming forward with a plan for building a co-operative approach to Arctic issues ensuring full participation of northern people, a protection against environmental risks, and a combined effort to steward and share the development of northern resources and to define a transportation route that could substantially shorten trade distances and help revive the global economy. This would show early in the Obama presidency that there is a better, post-Bush way of doing things.

President Bush has indicated that he plans to let the tests of time and history decide the merits of his presidency.

We needn’t wait — the verdict is in. It’s time to make a fresh start and break new ground in meeting the difficult circumstances facing our world today.

Former Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy is president and vice-chancellor of the University of Winnipeg.

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