Spring Break
Trip to Europe will salvage U.S. role in world
Brandon Southward
Issue date: 4/1/09 Section: Forum
This week President Obama will take the biggest trip so far in his young presidency when he travels abroad to attend the G-20 summit and NATO meetings in Europe.
These meetings will be vital in setting a new tone by the United States in its world affairs as well as garnering support for Obama's bold plans. Obama will discuss many issues at the summit and meetings, ranging from the situation with Iran to stabilizing the international financial crisis.
However, unlike his journey abroad last summer, Obama will not meet adoring crowds of thousands but instead skeptical, and in some instances hostile, politicians this time. He will be going into this summit needing to use every bit of his charm and intellect to convince those leaders that America's plans are the way to go in solving the world's current problems.
During the G-20 summit, President Obama will run into some strong resistance to his ideas of a global stimulus and a global regulatory board. In Obama's mind, the purpose of a global stimulus would be to have more countries pour more money into their own economies in hopes of stabilizing them.
This will allow countries that are already doing this to not have to carry the countries that decide against it and wait for other countries to improve first.
On the global stimulus front, Obama will get some support from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British leader Gordon Brown. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already voiced strong opposition to the idea, and the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek called it "a way to hell." So yeah … there is going to need to be some work done in garnering more support for the global stimulus.
On the international regulatory system front, there is more of an acceptance of the fact that new regulations need to be implemented. This is important, considering there is about $50 trillion of unregulated money transferred each year around the world. That would be trillion with a "t," and to ensure that something like this crisis does not happen again, there needs to be better regulation and intense cooperation around the world.
These meetings will be vital in setting a new tone by the United States in its world affairs as well as garnering support for Obama's bold plans. Obama will discuss many issues at the summit and meetings, ranging from the situation with Iran to stabilizing the international financial crisis.
However, unlike his journey abroad last summer, Obama will not meet adoring crowds of thousands but instead skeptical, and in some instances hostile, politicians this time. He will be going into this summit needing to use every bit of his charm and intellect to convince those leaders that America's plans are the way to go in solving the world's current problems.
During the G-20 summit, President Obama will run into some strong resistance to his ideas of a global stimulus and a global regulatory board. In Obama's mind, the purpose of a global stimulus would be to have more countries pour more money into their own economies in hopes of stabilizing them.
This will allow countries that are already doing this to not have to carry the countries that decide against it and wait for other countries to improve first.
On the global stimulus front, Obama will get some support from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British leader Gordon Brown. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already voiced strong opposition to the idea, and the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek called it "a way to hell." So yeah … there is going to need to be some work done in garnering more support for the global stimulus.
On the international regulatory system front, there is more of an acceptance of the fact that new regulations need to be implemented. This is important, considering there is about $50 trillion of unregulated money transferred each year around the world. That would be trillion with a "t," and to ensure that something like this crisis does not happen again, there needs to be better regulation and intense cooperation around the world.
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