America's Chance to Reengage the World

The election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States has energized not only the American people, its media, and its politics, but the international community as well. And regardless of the extent to which this new hope in new American ledadership will come to fruition, one thing is clear: we are likely witnessing the beginning of a sustained period of multilateral reengagement and a fundamental and critical shift in the tone emanating from Washington.

The Salzburg Global Seminar's Senior Vice President and Chief Program Officer, Edward Mortimer, yesterday analyzed this potential for reengagement in an article for the Financial Times entitled America’s chance to re-engage the world, where he reminds us of the realities of some difficult relationships between US Administrations and multilateral institutions, and offers a check to the sky-high expectations being built up as we all look toward January 20, 2009. Indeed, the challenges are massive, and the Obama Administration clearly faces a long and stiff economic headwind, despite the transformational power of an historic election, the hopes of a nation, and the expectations of an international community that seeks to help push him forward.

To that end, starting in Salzburg next week the Seminar will conduct Session 458, The US in the World: New Strategies of Engagement, which will seek to provide an international forum for the collection and dissemination of some of the key ideas needed as the 44th US presidency gets underway.

Through all of this, as we look toward the next US Administration and who President Obama is going to appoint to key positions, several of the possible early picks aslo happen to be Seminar alumni. Here is a brief rundown of some of President-Elect Obama's potential picks:

National Security Advisor: James B. Steinberg, former Deputy National Security Advisor under Clinton and participant at the 2003 Common Interest Forum, a partnership program conducted with NYU's Remarque Institute.

Senior Economic Advisor/Secretary of the Treasury: Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and faculty member at numerous Salzburg Global Seminar Sessions, including most recently Chair of Session 456, Sovereign Wealth Funds: Risks and Opportunities for Global Financial Markets.

Ambassador to the United Nations: Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and Faculty member at Salzburg Global Seminar Session 418, Reinventing the West: Redefining the Transatlantic Relationship.

Economic Advisor: Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Professor at the Haas School of Business and faculty member at numerous Salzburg Global Seminar Sessions, most recently Session 390, International Legal Perspectives on Human Rights.

Transition Team: Michael Froman, Managing Director Head, Infrastructure and Sustainable Development Citi Alternative Investments Institutional Clients Group , and Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar Session 290, “The Transformation of a Continent: Europe in Transition”.

More certainly to come ...

-- Benjamin Glahn