IN A speech that electrified the United Nations General Assembly, US president Barack Obama yesterday committed America to “a new era of engagement with the world”, challenging all nations to join the US in “a new chapter of international co-operation”.
At times informal, at times solemn, the US leader was interrupted 12 times by applause. With almost magical ease, Mr Obama transformed the cliche about the American president being “the leader of the free world” into a reality.
“I come before you humbled by the responsibility that the American people have placed upon me, mindful of the enormous challenges of our moment in history and determined to act boldly and collectively on behalf of justice and prosperity,” Mr Obama began.
The huge expectations attached to his presidency “are not about me”, Mr Obama asserted. “They are rooted – I believe – in a discontent with a status quo that has allowed us to be increasingly defined by our differences and outpaced by our problems”.
Returning to the themes of hope and change that last year galvanised his election campaign, Mr Obama said the world’s expectations are “rooted in hope – the hope that real change is possible, and the hope that America will be a leader in bringing about such change”.
Mr Obama definitively closed the door on the Bush era. “I took office at a time when many around the world had come to view America with scepticism and distrust,” he noted.
There had been “misperceptions and misinformation about my country,” Mr Obama said. But he also recognised that “specific policies” created the belief that “on certain critical issues, America has acted unilaterally, without regard for the interests of others”. This resulted in “almost reflexive anti- Americanism”.
Though he would “never apologise” for defending US interests, Mr Obama saw them as part of an interlocking whole, in which “the interests of nations and peoples are shared . . . we share a common future”.
When travelling abroad, Mr Obama said he has carried the same message: “The time has come for the world to move in a new direction. We must embrace a new era of engagement based on mutual interests and mutual respect, and our work must begin now.” Mr Obama recalled the concrete steps he has taken over the past nine months. “On my first day in office, I prohibited – without exception or equivocation – the use of torture by the United States of America,” he said to applause.
He ordered the closure of Guantánamo prison and was determined to fight extremism “within the rule of law”.
Henceforward, he announced, “America will live its values, and we will lead by example”.
“In Iraq, we are responsibly ending a war,” he said. He listed steps towards achieving “a world without nuclear weapons”, attempts to relaunch Middle East peace negotiations, the $80 billion his government has invested in fighting climate change, and concerted international action that has “brought the global economy back from the brink”.