Obama’s Transnationalism?
In recent days President Obama has shown a willingness to side with smaller/poorer countries against the wishes of the Europeans and other wealthy governments.
First, it is being reported that the US favors a very large board for the new and evolving Women’s Rights Agency at the UN. The Europeans and Canada favor a small board favoring the rich donor countries, much like the Unicef board. This pits Obama with the G-77 (135 nations of the developing world) against the European, Canada and Japan.
Second, my colleague Susan Yoshihara, C-FAM’s Vice President for Research, believes when the US next hosts the G8, which just closed in Toronto, the Obama Administration will essentially dissolve it in favor of the G20, again siding with smaller countries against the Europeans.
Susan suggests this could be a reflection of Obama’s transnationalist ideology. She says this transnationalism plays well in the classroom, but when it comes right down to it is naïve since a country like the US needs other powerful countries to assist when crises inevitably come.
View online at: https://c-fam.org/turtle_bay/obamas-transnationalism/
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