Opinion: Assessing Obama's foreign policy touch

Far from the UN, here in the real world of Pittsburgh, there's more to diplomacy than just words

C.M. SennottSeptember 23, 2009 18:15Updated May 30, 2010 12:08

President Barack Obama plays basketball at Fort McNair in Washington May 9, 2009. Obama's week of big appearances is off to a good start, but he is going to have to bring his A-game to the G20 in Pittsburgh. (Pete Souza/Reuters)

PITTSBURGH — President Barack Obama’s public diplomacy is as graceful and seemingly effortless as that three-point jump shot he hit with TV cameras running during the campaign.

All net.

Back then, he was a candidate introducing himself to the country. Now he is in the real game, and real diplomacy has much more to it than words. His public diplomacy skills were on display Wednesday when President Obama spoke before the U.N. General Assembly. He was warmly greeted and stressed the need for nations to work together to solve the issues that connect us all from climate change to terrorism.

The words, as always, were eloquent. The world’s leaders nodded their heads in agreement. President Obama defined “a new era of engagement with the world” after eight years of President George W. Bush’s clumsy unilateralism and contempt for the U.N.

All net.

And presumably, President Obama will do the same when he speaks here in Pittsburgh at the Group of 20 where the leaders of the world’s top 20 economic powerhouses will gather to address the global economy.

But in the real game of statecraft, Obama has not proven himself. Not yet.

In the first eight months of his presidency, he has had to focus on the urgent matter of the global economic crisis. The gathering here in Pittsburgh will likely be a mutual admiration society at least among the wealthy Western nations, formerly known as the G8. They’ll be patting themselves on the back for working together and managing to avert a global economic catastrophe.

Things are better, for sure.

But at this gathering, there will also be the developing countries who harbor a great deal of resentment for the impact this meltdown had on their struggling economies. Western greed and lack of regulation left them holding the bag of misery for their populations that live in poverty. And even among the G8 leaders, there will be the uncomfortable silences among friends about the war in Afghanistan.