Tend to the Coalition So It Lasts Beyond This Crisis

Difficult as it may be, building a coalition under the extraordinary circumstances of the Sept. 11 attacks may not be President Bush’s most demanding foreign policy challenge. More daunting will be sustaining this coalition in the crosswinds of differing national interests, not to mention Washington’s poor record of heeding the concerns of its partners. This will be all the harder because of the ambivalence of many Muslims over a military response within the Islamic world to the attacks on the United States.

A decade ago, former President Bush and his secretary of State, James Baker, drew together a massive international coalition to expel Iraq from Kuwait. While that military effort succeeded, divisions soon appeared among coalition members that went unheeded in Washington.

Among the greatest concerns was the policy ultimately adopted by the U.S.--imposing economic sanctions, buttressed by occasional airstrikes against Iraqi targets--which has been widely viewed as victimizing innocent people in Iraq.

When it comes to Afghanistan, the U.S. must treat its coalition partners with care.

Washington must share as much intelligence information about the terrorists’ activities as it can. It will not be easy for many governments to maintain support for military action in Afghanistan and beyond once the civilian casualty tolls rise. These governments need as much political ammunition as possible to persuade their publics not only that the cause is just--few doubt this--but that the methods employed are targeted and proportionate.

Bush also must rethink his position on issues of huge importance to other countries now backing the U.S., including the environment, weapons treaties, international criminal justice and support for international institutions. Unless the U.S. displays more openness to the views of its friends on these issues, support for the fight against terrorism will surely weaken.

Nor can the U.S. afford to ignore the anti-American sentiment that many countries in the coalition are facing. While Osama bin Laden’s nihilist philosophy seems unlinked to any actual policy goals, his rhetoric has struck a chord in much of the Muslim world. The underlying reasons for Bin Laden’s appeal, including gross economic disparities and widespread political repression, and the strong sense that the Palestinians have been brutalized amid Western indifference, must be addressed. If not, terrorist networks will continue to find support.

Thankfully, when it comes to Afghanistan, the U.S. now accepts that, having walked disastrously away from the country in the wake of the Soviet pullout in the late 1980s, Washington now must help Afghans in the long term. But the reconstruction of Afghanistan will not come cheap. At the time of the Gulf conflict, the U.S. asserted that while it would do most of the fighting, its allies should do most of the paying. If the U.S. takes that position now, given global economic stagnation, confrontations with allies may ensue.

Since Sept. 11, the Bush administration has shifted its attitude regarding the ongoing need for strategic partners. Likewise, much of the hostility in Congress toward the U.N. has subsided. Now is the time to take the steps to ensure that, months and years from now, the new partnerships formed by the U.S. are even stronger.