The Bush administration is now infamous for it’s aggressive foreign policy. Military action was taken in order to achieve a positive outcome for the U.S. outcome and it became infamously known as the Bush Doctrine. In 2008, one of President Obama’s main platforms was a reversal of 8 years of that doctrine back to a diplomatic approach. Rather than exerting the weight of the U.S. military, he would negotiate with all parties to secure peaceful outcomes in the best interest of the U.S.
The effectiveness of this approach is about to be put to the test. On Jan. 9, Sudan will hold a historic election where the south will have the opportunity to succeed from the north, breaking Africa’s largest country into two separate ones. President Omar al-Bashir has already been charged with war crimes and seeing as the south holds the oil reserves that the north would lose, there is a strong likelihood an outbreak of violence could plunge the country into more years of violence.
Over the past year, non-governmental agencies like Catholic Relief Services have been working tirelessly to ensure a peaceful and valid election in Sudan. The CRS Ambassadors at Cabrini College also lobbied Senator Casey’s aide to make sure all was being done by the Obama administration to enforce this. We were assured that Senator Casey was working with the State Department to make this happen.
Other influential leaders in the Sudan peace effort are reporting the same. According to the The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room:
Clooney appeared on ABC’s “This Week” to talk about continuing crisis in the African nation as the country faces a heated secession referendum a week from now.
When asked if Obama has kept his vows to tackle issues in the war-torn nation, Clooney said, “Yes, he has.”
“It’s a tough one to keep, you know?” he said. “There’s — it’s a very complicated situation. It is going to get a lot more complicated. We met with the president. The president seems to be very much on top of the issue.
“And we want to make sure — and our job is to keep the pressure on to make sure that — that there’s no slippage in that at all,” Clooney added.
The Jan. 9 referendum is not only a test for Sudan but also a test of the new approach the Obama administration has taken. It is a test for diplomacy and peace. Can the U.S. create change in the world without the need for U.S. military interference? It could be the reversal of decades of using our military power to protect not only our interests, but the security of the international community.
