The New New Deal Goes Global

Obama's national security team will need creative solutions to today's urgent foreign policy challenges, from Iraq and Afghanistan to North Korea, Iran, Congo, and Middle East peace. These complex issues will take a new caliber of diplomatic muster, and progress on any would be a triumph. But the times call for an ambitious, coherent international focus that goes beyond specific predicaments and ensures lasting change. How should America use this moment, with a progressive in the White House, a roiling worldwide crisis, and enormous power relative to our peers, to shape the world beyond our shores? The Obama administration should advance toward a goal that FDR championed--the strengthening of international institutions.

Creating effective architectures of global order requires three kinds of intervention--extensive improvement of existing institutions and rules, limited creation of new mechanisms, and reliable American engagement. The agenda is both complex and controversial. In terms of security, it includes the reform of voting rules and membership of the U.N. Security Council, the founding of a workable non-proliferation regime, belated American leadership on climate change, and a fortification of the World Health Organization. In terms of the global economy, we must develop new mechanisms to regulate international banking and finance, as well as update of the roles and governance of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. In terms of human rights and justice, the U.S. must join the U.N. Human Rights Council to help make it a serious forum for scrutiny and also engage in the International Criminal Court. As daunting as these steps may be, they are just the beginning.Each of these

The New New Deal Goes Global