Foreign Policy Shadows

However distracting President Clinton’s domestic troubles may be--domestic in both meanings of that word--global challenges to U.S. interests continue to demand decisions that only the nation’s chief diplomat and commander in chief can make. There are already worrying signs that the seven-month-old Monica Lewinsky matter may have kept Clinton from giving adequate attention to a number of foreign policy concerns. Among the challenges on which the president should be focusing are these.

% Terrorism. Investigations into the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania appear to be moving much faster than anticipated, with growing evidence pointing to the involvement of the America-hating Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, now in refuge in Afghanistan. Determining how to respond to the bombings requires a careful weighing of options at the highest level and orders that only the president can give.

% Middle East Peace. The United States in recent months has virtually suspended its active role as sponsor of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Worse, it has made itself look weak and even craven by first signaling that its patience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stalling and obstructionism was at an end and then retreating in the face of his continued obduracy. The peace process is supposed to be completed by next May. Unless there is major progress before then, armed clashes on a large scale could well erupt. The Clinton administration must reinvolve itself vigorously to keep the process viable and to protect U.S. interests in the region.

% Iraq. Saddam Hussein has all but torn up his agreement with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to allow unimpeded inspections of his weapons programs. The Clinton administration’s curious passivity in the face of this defiance has yet to be explained. Without firm U.S. leadership, it’s clear the effort to deny Iraq weapons of mass destruction may collapse, posing new threats to the Persian Gulf.

% North Korea. U.S. intelligence satellites have uncovered a huge secret facility to develop a new nuclear weapons capability, undercutting the U.S.-South Korea-Japan effort to buy off North Korea by providing it with nuclear generating plants. U.S. policy on the Korean peninsula may require urgent reappraisal. The Clinton administration has yet to address this matter publicly.

Clinton’s term expires 29 months from today. The challenges noted above and others where U.S. interests are deeply involved, including Russia, the Balkans and the dicey world economy, are if anything likely to grow more urgent. The nation needs a president who is able to focus fully on his job. So does a world that continues to look to and expect leadership from the United States.