Despite the fact that developments in Turkey have not given these circles the chance to create a Turkey that will cut its close links with the Western world and form a new system of alliance with Eurasian powers, we Turks unconsciously have, to a great extent, closed our windows and doors to developments occurring all around the world. There are many international developments that need to be analyzed by Turkish intellectuals from a genuinely Turkish perspective.
For instance, I have not seen any in-depth analysis about what either Barack Obama or John McCain promises for the region to which Turkey belongs. What are their main approaches on major international issues? Will their policies on international issues be based on unilateralism or multilateralism? Do they have a tendency to cooperate with the international community to resolve international problems? Or do they not care about the sensitivities of the international society? Of course, we have many international subjects to discuss. However, since the election of US presidents has never affected just the Americans, it is a good subject to discuss.
Last week I attended an international conference, where I had a chance to listen some of Obama and McCain's top advisors. An expert from the American Enterprise Institute who supports McCain's foreign policy and a retired ambassador and lecturer from Princeton University who advises Obama's campaign on foreign affairs explained the policies likely to be pursued by these presidential candidates. Let me share some of the notes I took as they made their presentations.
Obama does not believe in the need for just a strong US, but also a strong system of international alliance and a system of strong international organizations. Obama thinks the US is the strongest nation in terms of military power, but that it has a big weakness in the sphere of political and strategic leadership. Obama thinks he can fill this gap.
Controlling nuclear materials (you can read this as the United States' Iran policy) is the top priority of Senator Obama, as it is for Senator McCain. However, while McCain's tendency will be to use military force to assure nuclear safety, Obama's policy will be to focus on seeking ways to reach a positive result by using diplomatic means and imposing sanctions on Iran. Nevertheless, Obama would never want to be known as the US president of the term in which Iran reached nuclear power.
As with President George W. Bush's policies, McCain gives top priority to the democratization of the Middle East. There is a kind of Marshall Plan on his agenda. The US gave almost 2 percent of its gross national product as foreign aid during the implementation of the Marshall Plan, but this amount is now just 1 percent. McCain plans to double foreign aid to improve democracies.
Obama criticizes the Republican administration for imposing democracy through the use of weapons and arms. He plans to improve democracy through the power of ideas and the inspiration of the merits of democratic administration. He does not believe democracy can be improved with billions of dollars in foreign aid. Obama cares about the feelings of the international community, so he visited many foreign countries and attracted over 200,000 people in Berlin as part of his election campaign. However, McCain does not even believe in the power of the UN. He thinks the main power for assuring world peace is the US.
For Obama, Iraq's security and stability is as crucial as Israel's security. However, as Iraqi security forces become ready to preserve security and stability in the country, Obama is much more willing to leave the duty of assuring security and stability to the local forces. The Obama camp believes that US forces will leave Iraq within 16 months. McCain, on the other hand, wants US troops to stay in Iraq until stability is assured in the country.
Whereas Obama will seek international cooperation for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, McCain will go on to follow Bush's policies in the Middle East. According to the McCain camp, Israel's security is the top priority of the US, because the results of public polls conducted in the US have shown that support for Israel is four times greater than support for Palestine. So McCain's policies naturally become pro-Israeli, and he also gives priority to the security and stability at the cost of democracy.
The McCain camp also believes in diplomacy for solving international problems, but he puts the US military force and the ability to use this force at the core of the diplomatic mechanism. His campaign argues that US military power has served democracy much more than the Marshall Plan. Obama, on the other hand, sees diplomatic and political capabilities as the most crucial parts of US national power and argues that the Bush administration has never bothered to use this power except in its policies toward North Korea.
