SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power defended President Barack Obama’s foreign policy during a speech at Seton Hall University on Jan. 13, telling a packed auditorium that the United States’ willingness to form coalitions with other countries, engage with hostile states and practice its values of openness is what makes the nation a global leader.
Speaking as a guest of the university’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations one day after Obama’s own State of the Union Address, Power disputed critics’ claims that the president’s foreign policy makes the United States look weak, stressing that the world actually turns to this nation every time there is a crisis. Before being nominated by Obama to be the ambassador to the United Nations, Power worked in the State Department under Obama’s administration.
In fact, the ambassador said the problem is not that other countries look down on the United States — it is that they often “aren’t willing to pull their weight or to do their fair share” in the expectation that “we can just snap our fingers and remake the world ourselves.”
Other nations believe that “America has a unique and indispensable role to play in the world,” and Power said that following the example Obama has set through his foreign policy is the way to continue to live up to that expectation.
“This is the foreign policy that will allow the United States to continue to lead for generations to come,” Power said.
To see the positive effect the president’s foreign policy has had on the world, Power said one only has to look at how rallying other countries impacted last year’s Ebola outbreak. While other nations were slow to respond to the deadly African crisis, she said the United States sent approximately 3,000 first responders, who immediately started collaborating with the communities affected to treat the sick. Taking that action compelled other nations to send health workers and equipment, she said, and today the three countries hit hardest by the disease — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — are down to zero cases of Ebola, thanks to the United States’ initiative.
“When the world needs an all-hands-on-deck effort, America not only does its part — we step and lead,” Power said.
The United States’ willingness to work with other countries has also had a powerful effect in combating the influence of ISIL, Power said, with the 65-nation coalition that the United States helped form making great strides in fighting the terrorist group militarily, cutting off its funding and countering the spread of its ideology. It is also the approach the United States took in joining nearly 200 countries to sign the ambitious Paris agreement against climate change.
And it is that spirit of cooperation that will result in what is best for the American people, Power said, even if the United States is the most powerful country in the world.
“We have to get other countries to share the burden,” Power said. “Even if we tried to do everything ourselves — on climate change, for instance, or on terrorism — one country cannot deal with threats that cross borders in the way that modern threats do.”
Engaging with nations even if they are hostile is another “hallmark” of Obama’s foreign policy that has resulted in gains for the United States, Power said. While some believe it was a mistake to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba, the ambassador said that ending the 50-year embargo actually worked in the United States’ favor by eliminating itself as the “bogeyman,” long blamed by the Castro regime for Cuba’s problems, while also putting itself in a better position to help the Cuban people.
Similarly, she said the sanctions against Iran brought about the negotiations that resulted in a nuclear deal with the potential to “cut off Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon.”
This type of engagement does not mean the United States is turning a blind eye toward the atrocities hostile nations such as Cuba and Iran have committed against their people, Power said. She stressed that it also is not a sign of naivete or agreement with their actions. Instead, she said diplomacy is a tool that simply must be explored in order to make people in the United States and abroad safe.
“Some say it is foolish to engage these regimes,” Power said. “Seeing what we have been able to achieve, though, through principled engagement, we think it would be foolish not to.”
But one of the biggest reasons the rest of the world looks to the United States as a leader is its belief that people of all faiths and backgrounds are welcome — a value that has come under fire recently, according to Power. Lamenting that more than half of U.S. governors have said they do not want to admit Syrian refugees into their states, the ambassador said the United States has never in history been made more secure by refusing to let people in. Plus, she said barring refugees means the United States will miss out on the contributions they could make, listing Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger, philanthropist George Soros and Google co-founder Sergey Brin as refugees who have already made a difference to this country.
Above all, Power made the point that most refugees are just people trying to make better lives for themselves, introducing a few refugees in the audience — including an Iraqi family targeted by extremists after their daughter married an American — as examples. She also lauded several organizations in attendance, including some run by Seton Hall students, that help refugees get settled in the United States, calling it “God’s work.”
“You represent the proudest of American values and traditions,” Power said. “Our communities are stronger because of the work that you are doing.”
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