How do you assess these proposals for foreign policy?

[mmonk]

We must renew our commitment to international law and multilateral cooperation. This means expanding the Security Council to reflect international realities, and it means ethical reform at the UN, so that this vital institution can meet the challenges of the 21st century. It means more third world debt relief, and a World Bank focused on poverty-reduction. It means shifting aid from loans to grants for the poorest countries. It means reviving the Doha round of trade talks and seeking agreements which seriously address wage disparities, worker rights, and the environment. It means more resources for the IMF, so that it can protect the international economy from financial panics and shocks.
And it means respecting the Geneva conventions and joining the International Criminal Court.

-snip-

The United States also must be the leader, not the laggard, in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We must join the Kyoto protocol on global warming, and then go well beyond it. We must lead the world with a man-on-the-moon effort to improve efficiency and to commercialize clean, alternative technologies. We must cut our fossil fuel consumption dramatically and rapidly, and get others, including China and India, to follow us to a sustainable energy future.

-snip-

We need to stop treating diplomatic engagement with others like a reward for good behavior. The Bush administration’s refusal to engage obnoxious regimes has only encouraged and strengthened their most paranoid and hard-line tendencies. The futility of this policy is most tragically obvious in regard to Iran and North Korea, who responded to Washington’s snubs and threats with intensification of their nuclear programs.

-snip-

http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/newsroom/the_new_realism_and_the_rebirth_of_american_leadership

[matt007]

1. Right on I give it an A plus

I think its all dead on. It would take all of that to go past just fixing what bush has done.

Adding India, Japan, Brazil, and Germany to the Security council Seems like a no brainer. The cold war is over.

[matt007]

2. expert opinion

I just had a chat with my old Foreign Policy professor. We both think its wonderful but it could turn out to be pie in the sky. Conservatives will fight most of that tooth and nail.

[mmonk]

3. While that might be true,

attempting to go about it will produce pressure on the right, especially if it is all pushed as an iniative by the executive branch and helped by Congressional democrats and any allies trying to carry it through our legislative bodies. It would be on the table with all its arguments put before the country (which I think many would welcome those approaches at this point).

[matt007]

4. I like the way you think

since the greenhouse gas emissions part and the ICC part would be the most difficult. I think we should air out some of the sins of the pro war crowd and oil companies. If we manage to turn the corner of public opinion on that bunch then the pressure we pile on will knock them over.