A liitle bit of good news in this gloomy summer cycle of crazy political news and global strife …
The World’s Biggest Carbon Emitters Officially Join The Paris Climate Deal
On Saturday, the United States and China formally joined the Paris Agreement, a historic global pact to curb greenhouse gas pollution and build resilience to the damaging effects of climate change. The agreement sets a number of collective goals, such as limiting global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, and calls on countries to submit new and increasingly ambitious national targets every five years to reduce emissions.
“The challenge of climate change could define contours of future,” Obama said after submitting the documents to the United Nations.
“Some day we may see this as the moment when we decided to save our planet.”
The announcement by the United States and China signifies a major step toward the Paris Agreement taking effect – and will again demonstrate that developed and emerging economies are now working in tandem to make the transition to non-polluting energy. The pact will come into force 30 days after it is formally joined by at least 55 countries representing at least 55percent of global emissions. Together, the United States and China – the world’s largest emitters – account for 38 percent of global greenhouse gas pollution.
Assessing U.S.-China relations under the Obama administration by Cheng Li
In weighing the state of U.S.-China relations, I am reminded of a well-known story. When Zhou Enlai, who served as China’s premier from 1949 to 1976, was asked for his opinion of the 1789 French Revolution, he demurred: “It’s too early to say.” To analyze history as it unfolds presents an even riskier and more challenging proposition. Nevertheless, as U.S. President Barack Obama approaches the end of his tenure, we stand at an inflection point. We must therefore measure the outcomes of U.S.-China relations during this period, drawing whatever lessons we can—even though it may be too early to judge.
From the time President Obama assumed office in 2009 to the present, positive U.S.-China relations have been vital to the two countries and to the world at large.
Generally speaking, on the U.S. side President Obama has firmly guided the overall direction of U.S.-China relations throughout his two terms in office. To understand this trajectory, we must incorporate into our analysis the president’s personal background, the domestic backdrop of the two countries, changes in the global and regional economic-political landscape, and other relevant factors.
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Many of Obama’s public statements evince his global mindset and the lessons he learned during his younger years: In Obama’s view, in the twenty-first century, America should evolve from a leader into a partner. He understands that “leadership comes with a price, and thus the United States cannot have leadership without strength. At the same time, he recognizes that the United States “must be aware of the rise of emerging economies and its impact on the new world order.In my opinion, among America’s postwar presidents, Obama has placed the least emphasis on a “top dog” image of the United States. Instead, he has stressed the need for the United States to integrate itself into a changing world rather than stomp around arrogantly and blindly. This principle is consistent with his enthusiastic participation in the G-7 and G-20. He has repeatedly expressed that “the United States welcomes the rise of China,” and he characterizes the U.S.-China relationship as the most important bilateral relationship of our time. Globalization and domestic aspirations for diversity are also reflected in the historic composition of his first-term cabinet, which included three members of Asian descent, two of whom were Chinese American.
Author: Cheng Li is director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution.
Obama to bid farewell with Asia pivot in flux | CNN |
Barack Obama, who once declared himself America’s first Pacific president, arrives in Asia for his last official visit Saturday with the trade pact that’s a pillar of his strategic pivot to the region on life support and China increasingly determined to challenge US power.
Obama will meet for the last time with G20 leaders in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, then attend a regional gathering in the reclusive Southeast Asian country of Laos. The stops comprise a six-day valedictory journey that will be the culmination of his effort to shift diplomatic and military muscle from Middle East quagmires to a dynamic region of vast economic potential.
“We see this trip as really bringing together a number of the President’s top priorities really for the last seven and a half years,” said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security advisor and co-architect of Obama’s Southeast Asia strategy.
But the tour is sure to highlight several growing challenges, including a newly assertive China more willing to throw its weight around in maritime security disputes and to nudge up against US air and naval forces in the region.
At the same time, the weakest piece of Obama’s “pivot” – what Green dubs an “incomplete” – is the initiative’s economic dimension. In the eyes of most Asia analysts, the future of the US position in Asia and its role as a leader counterbalancing China’s economic rise depends on implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Better known as TPP, it is a 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact that Obama has vowed to pass in Congress before leaving office. But it faces strong headwinds in the US, notably from both major presidential candidates.
Obama the Carpenter: The President’s National Security Legacy | Brookings – May 2015 |
By the standards he has set out for himself, President Barack Obama’s foreign policy has fallen considerably short of expectations and aspirations.
Obama’s presidency will not go down as a hugely positive watershed period in American foreign policy. He ran for election in 2007 and 2008 promising to mend the West’s breach with the Islamic world, repair the nation’s image abroad, reset relations with Russia, move toward a world free of nuclear weapons, avoid “stupid wars” while winning the “right war,” combat climate change, and do all of this with a post-partisan style of leadership that brought Americans themselves together in the process.
He ran for reelection in 2012 with the additional pledges of ending the nation’s wars and completing the decimation of Al Qaeda. Six years into his presidency, almost none of these lofty aspirations has been achieved.
