The (Ex) Washington Realist

Remind me please, who exactly are these phantom "friends and allies" who are going to follow America's lead no matter what? Europe is deeply divided over how to deal with Russia. Britain is leaving Iraq and now appears to be parting company with America over what to do in Afghanistan (while other NATO countries seem to feel it is time to leave). For some reason I can't fathom, our policy elites seem determined to force Russia and China closer together. And when it comes to economic matters, it is rapidly becoming a case of every country for itself.

I've noticed that the presidential campaigns don't talk as much about Leagues of Democracies anymore, either.

Maybe the president-elect ought to head on over to the NATO summit in December and start seeing what common ground there is to get the trans-Atlantic alliance rejuvenated. Doing the rounds, especially in India, South Korea, Japan and Australia might not be a bad idea, as well as quickly establishing some lines of communication with South Africa and Brazil.

Perhaps a reminder of why an alliance audit needs to take place--and soon. From Reuters, reporting on the Evian Europe-Russia summit today:

"Medvedev said Russia's war with Georgia in August showed that the security mechanism in Europe, based around NATO and the United States, needed to be replaced with a new European security pact and proposed a conference to set it up. 'It should unite the whole Euro-Atlantic region on the basis of common rules of the game,' he said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who holds the rotating EU presidency and was at the Evian forum, became the first European leader publicly to back the idea.
But he told Medvedev the United States could not be excluded. 'I don't take instructions from America. But America is our friend and ally,' Sarkozy said.