A failure of vision - how self-centeredness undermines international policy

Reading the current issue of Foreign Affairs - with a fascinating discussion by Barak Obama and Mitt Romney of their international policy outlooks and policy proposal and an interesting roundtable discussion of important international policy experts about what to do with the war in Iraq, I am struck by one underlying truth of American foreign policy:

We are blinded by our self-centeredness. Almost every proposal in this group focuses on how to make Iraq do our bidding, rather than supporting a more genuine democratic solution in Iraq by its own people and representatives with military support for the security to provide the security and political space for such a solution to be found.

Almost every political proposal I have read or heard about what to do in Iraq focusses on what American must do to make the political resolution of Iraq's problems rather than on how American can assist in security efforts, where it is needed, so that Iraqis can come to their own more authentic democratic resolution.

Such self-centeredness reinforces every stereotype that Iraqis and the world have of Americans only looking after their own interests and leveraging for those interests at the expense of the interests of others. And it reinforces that stereotype because there is too much truth to it to ignore.

The Greeks' warning of hubris is as relevant today as it was in Ancient Greece because every civilization since then has persistently assumed as the Greeks did: that their own supposed virtue warranted whatever exercises of power they deemed necessary. And the devolution and loss of confidence in power that has characterized liberal democratic development and progress from that time has occurred as people become clearer about the how the self-interest and self-centeredness of various political parties does not match their own.

This is why enlightened self-interest rather than more narrow self-interest is the hallmark of liberal democratic values. Because it is the first step toward a more genuine concern for the interests of others, intrisincally and in-and-of-themselves, rather than as means to pursue one's own ends.

What is so disturbingly missing from almost every proposal around the war in Iraq is a concern for Iraqis and Iraqi democracy and it's own self-determined, self-governed development, rather than a primary focus on how it impacts American interests (and Americans wonder why Iraqis and the world are so suspicious of Americans and the American government). It is this concern by Iraqis and the Maliki government which has animated their open frustration with Washington for pressuring for political solutions that are hard and complex enough to reach, on their own, without Washington undermining the process with efforts which reinforce the image and reality of Washington and America as a self-serving player in political negotiations interfering in domestic Iraqi or other foreign politics for its own advantage. Most players in Washington do not see the problem because it is a game they have all too happily taken part in as long as it served their interests. And Americans wonder why Iraqis do not view or trust them as fair arbiters of their own internal squabbles.

As long as American international policy is animated by this myopia of self-interest, it should expect Iraqis and people around the world, including American citizens, too often, to view it, rightly, with suspicion and mistrust.

Noone should trust anyone who views them as a means of satisfing their own ends. No individuals should trust another individual who reasons this way. And no people should trust another people or another government who reasons this way.

And America should expect failure in Iraq as long it looks at Iraq as a means to its own ends.