George W Bush's policies (pre-emptive war waged on false pretenses, disregard for the Geneva conventions regarding torture, arrogant unilateralism, world-wide economic crisis, denial of climate change, etc) did extensive damage to America's reputation around the world. The election of President Obama seems to have changed that:
The United States is the most admired country globally thanks largely to the star power of President Barack Obama and his administration, according to a new poll.
It climbed from seventh place last year, ahead of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan which completed the top five nations in the Nation Brand Index (NBI).
"What's really remarkable is that in all my years studying national reputation, I have never seen any country experience such a dramatic change in its standing as we see for the United States for 2009," said Simon Anholt, the founder of NBI, which measured the global image of 50 countries each year.
And now the big news this morning:
President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” a honor that came less than nine months after he made United States history by becoming the country’s first African-American president.
The award, announced in Oslo by the Nobel Committee while much of official Washington — including the president — was still asleep, cited in particular the president’s efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
“He has created a new international climate,” the committee said.
Of course, his detractors will say that he hasn't done anything to deserve this award (including one jackass who suggested that he got it because of affirmative action). Andrew Sullivan makes this important point, though:
If any person has done more to advance some measure of calm, reason and peace in this troubled word lately, it's President Obama. I think the Cairo speech and the Wright speech alone merited this both bridging ancient rifts even while they remain, of course, deep and intractable. He has already done more to heal the open wound between the West and Islam than anyone else on the planet.
Although these accolades are nice and all, there's much to be done.
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