Foreign Policy and Domestic Paralysis

Fred Kaplan surveys the notion that legislative paralysis in a supermajority rules Senate may turn Barack Obama into a “foreign policy president.” I was talking with a European diplomat earlier today, and while we didn’t specifically discuss this idea, our conversation, which basically just ranged across international issues, made it clear to me that this can’t work.

The crux of the matter is that most of the key items on Obama’s international agenda—from climate change to non-proliferation—require congressional action for anything to happen. Even on the Middle East Peace Process, part of the key to Bibi Netanyahu’s strategy has been his (accurate, in my view) sense that he could win any necessary congressional battle if Obama tried to deploy leverage against him. There are lots of things a president can do in the face of a reluctant congress, but most of them aren’t very progressive. You can start a war. You can undertake covert operations somewhere. You can have the NSA initiate an illegal surveillance program. But you can’t really move toward a co-operative world without the ability to get cooperation from congress.