Darfur here, internationalism (reviewing Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and the World) here. I’m not an expert on these subjects, but I’ve generally found Max Boot’s work interesting and persuasive, so I thought I’d pass these two along. A quote from the Darfur piece:
So who will stop the killing? That question should trouble any tender soul who has ever mindlessly muttered, “Never again.” That incantation is repeated after every genocide — after the Holocaust, after the Cambodian killing fields, after Rwanda — and yet the next time mass slaughter breaks out, the world conveniently averts its gaze. The major exceptions in recent years have been Kosovo and Bosnia, which had the good fortune to be on Western Europe’s doorstep. The rest of the world is treated to high-minded cluck-clucking and, maybe, ex post facto prosecutions.
The only way to save Darfur is to dispatch a large and capable military expedition. But Security Council members France, China and Russia have blocked a U.N. decision on armed intervention because they covet trade ties with Sudan. . . . [And] the only nation with a serious military capacity [for independent action], the United States, is overstretched in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The European Union should step into the breach. Its economy is as big as the United States’ and its population is even bigger. But it has chosen to spend its euros on extravagant handouts for its own citizens rather than on the kind of armed forces that might bring a ray of hope to the “heart of darkness.” Although the European members of NATO actually have more ground troops than the U.S. — about 1.5 million soldiers — only about 6% are readily deployable abroad. . . .
And from the other one:
[Kishore Mahbubani, who recently stepped down as Singapore’s ambassador to the United Nations] closes with an obligatory plea for a kinder, gentler superpower to promote “greater respect for international law.” But isn’t that what Bill Clinton did? He never saw a treaty he didn’t want to sign or a foreign leader he didn’t want to consult. And yet that didn’t prevent the growth of murderous anti-Americanism. Mahbubani, like other critics of the Bush administration, ignores Machiavelli’s dictum that “it is much safer to be feared than loved.” George W. Bush may not have increased the love for the United States, but if he has increased respect for American power, that’s an underappreciated achievement.
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