Tom Zacharski - I recently read a very interesting book - “The Post-American World” by Fareed Zakaria (he’s a NYTimes publisher). The book is basically about the relative fall of American position in the world, the key word here being “relative”. Mr Zakaria is talking about the “rise of the rest” - obviously the “rest” is being lead by China and India, but these are also other developing countries like Brazil, Central and Eastern Europe or South-East Asia. The book also discusses America’s position in the world and potential future as a leader or… not a leader. Definitely worth reading.

What struck me most in the book were two stories I read… I would like to share them here, because they are huge eye-openers. The first one is about a meeting between Condoleezza Rice and French President Nicolas Sarkozy after his election in 2007:

Condoleezza Rice (…) asked him, “What can I do for you?” His response was revealing. “Improve your image in the world. (…) It’s difficult when the country that is the most powerful, the most successful - that is, of necessity, the leader of our side - is one of the most unpopular countries in the world. It presents overwhelming problems for your allies. So do everything you can do to improve the way you’re perceived - that’s what you can do for me”.

President Sarkozy’s frankness revealed what I believe is a huge problem for America today - its declining image as the world’s leader and the world’s superpower. The good news is that America seems to have a great chance to improve its prestige right NOW. With a president who is loved by Europe and the rest of the world, with leaders of other powerful countries being pro-American (e.g. France, Germany, Japan) the United States have a great chance of reclaiming the love of the world. Yet, loved or not, the United States will still be perceived as a global policeman - which brings to the next story from the book:

In July 2002, the government of Morocco sent twelve soldiers to a tiny island called Leila, a few hundred feet off its coast, in the Straits of Gibraltar, and planted its flag there. The island is uninhabited, except for some goats, and that thrives on it is wild parsley, hence it Spanish name, Perejil. But its sovereignty had long been contested by Morocco and Spain, and the Spanish government reacted forcefully to the Moroccan “aggression.” Within a couple of weeks, seventy-five Spanish soldiers had been airlifted onto the island. (…) From afar, the whole affair looked like a comic opera. But however absurd it may have seemed someone was going to have to talk the two countries down. This role fell not to the United Nations, or to the European Union, or to a friendly European country like France, which has good relations with both sides. It fell to the United States.

Isn’t that amazing? A conflict of such low magnitude, which would have been easily resolved by any institution, actually had to be resolved by the United States and required tens of phone calls made by Secretary of State Colin Powell. That was in 2002… A lot has changed since that time and I’m not exactly sure if today the two states would look towards America as a potential mediator.

To conclude - America’s image and America’s leadership need to be redefined for the XXIst century. And that will be one of President Obama’s most important task. I hope that the economic crisis will not last very long and President Obama’s administration will consider those strategic matters as its priority. What makes me optimistic is the fact that at some time during the Summer Senator Obama was seen with Fareed Zakaria’s book in his hand (yup, that fact was one of the reasons for which I bought the book in the first place…).

Tom Zacharski, a citizen of Poland and the United States, is a student of SGH in Warsaw (5th year of Management). He also studied at Harvard and Georgetown University in the U.S.A., and took part in university exchange programs in Austria, Canada and the Czech Republic. His Web site: tomzacharski.com .