By Arthur I. Cyr
Scripps Howard News Service
The Nobel Peace Prize should provide President Obama some comfort as he becomes increasingly occupied with war, especially in Afghanistan.
This past week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly restated the case for maintaining United States forces there. If we withdraw, the Taliban will return to power. If the Taliban returns to power in Kabul, rest assured that safe haven for al-Qaida will return with them. Additionally, a sudden U.S. withdrawal would be viewed generally as a U.S. defeat, with justification.
These considerations must be kept in mind as the now very public debate heats up concerning the request from Gen. Stanley McChrystal for substantial additional troops. His London public speech on the war, plus leaking of his confidential report, further complicates life for President Obama.
There are consequential geo-strategic dimensions to American engagement in Afghanistan, reaching well beyond these two nations. The global terrorist challenge is just that. Britain and Spain, among other European nations, have faced and so far surmounted terrorist attacks. Other nations, including China and Korea, have faced specific threats. There has been significant terrorist destruction in Indonesia, which has the largest Moslem population in the world. Likewise Russia, an Asian as well as European nation, has faced continuing challenges from extremist Islamic groups.
Nonetheless, the troop level debate takes place in a wider context that is to some extent encouraging. Last year the G8, which includes the world's most advanced industrial economies, decided to devote massive financial resources to combating poverty and crime in Afghanistan, focused on areas where ``narcotics trafficking and extremism are endemic".
A new coordinating body oversees approximately four billion dollars in aid, concentrated in tribal areas bordering Pakistan where al-Qaida and the Taliban are particularly strong. Assistance includes police and military training as well as expanded anti-drug efforts. The thrust, however, is economic, not military.
In seeking effective American policies, history as usual is instructive. In particular, useful lessons are provided by that durable duo of international relations, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. While in office they consistently applied very traditional balance of power diplomacy to the contemporary world. Results included improved relations with both China and the Soviet Union, achieved in part by playing the two powers off against one another. Strategic arms accords with Moscow and opening diplomatic relations with Beijing were among the results.
Iran is committed to assisting Afghanistan stability and development, a reflection of Tehran's hostility to drug trafficking. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai emphasizes this dimension of international aid. Why doesn't Washington use this as an opening to try coordinating our assistance efforts, thereby easing the hot nuclear debate with Tehran?
During the Nixon administration, Turkey was a principal source of world heroin production. That president creatively used product licensing to encourage Turkish farmers to sell crops to pharmaceutical companies, for legal medicinal purposes. Drug lords moved some production to other locations, including Afghanistan. However, the mammoth established drug route from Turkey to Marseilles France, and then the U.S. ― dramatized in the Oscar-winning 1971 film ``The French Connection" ― was disrupted, and our important ally Turkey was strengthened.
Why not apply this practical approach to Afghanistan?
In diplomacy especially, the devil is in the details; Nixon-Kissinger success resulted from that recognition. Read their voluminous published writings, in particular Nixon's memoirs "RN" and Kissinger's history ``Diplomacy," for insights on how foreign policy pros operated.
Now is a good time to rethink Afghanistan policies ― in specific terms.
Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of ``After the Cold War" (NYU Press and Macmillan/Palgrave). E-mail him at acyr@carthage.edu.