planet earth looks blue

The US reaches out to its former Cold War enemy to prevent a repeat of the energy, time, and money sucking black hole arms race that dominated American foreign policy for years.  But this time the threat is Iran’s shadow nuclear program.  President Obama wrote to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, suggesting a you scratch my back, I won’t step on your toes endeavor.  If Russia can be of any assistance in pressuring Iran to halt its alleged nuclear bomb building, then there would be no need to build a missile base in Poland, and a radar facility in the Czech Republic.

As Anne-Marie Slaughter says in “America’s Edge: Power in the Networked Century” (Foreign Affairs Jan/Feb 2009), “We live in a networked world…..the state with the most connections will be the central player, able to set the global agenda.”  People bond, atoms bond, why not nations?  Whether we need Medvedev’s help or not to force Iran’s hand isn’t really the issue.  What this is is an opportunity to make a connection with the big Russian bear.  After the Bush administration’s shaky ending to Russian-US relations, Obama is wise to reach out to both Russia and China.  We may not agree with Putin’s crackdown on journalists, or Hu Jintao’s stance on Tibet, but we can still smile and pretend to be great friends.  That’s what networking is all about, right?  This is reality, and down the road a more sustainable relationship may arise.  But that all depends on if Obama can find a way to back up his words.  Meanwhile, President Obama is hosting Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week.  They are great friends as well.