U.S. Dialogue Shift...Soft Power Potential?

Yesterday, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announced that the U.S. will stand behind the Egyptian people and give them support to guarantee their desires for free and fair elections and the other freedoms they have been deprived of. This is a dialogue switch from prior statements that were made by the U.S. government. Hilary stated that she wants to ensure a peaceful, smooth transition to a transparent government.

It seems that the U.S. has learned from past revolution disasters, such as the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which stemmed from discontentment with the U.S. backed Shah. Thus instead of backing Mubarak strongly, they are opting for a “new beginning”, which harkens back to Obama’s June 4^th 2009 speech in Cairo, which promised a fresh start for U.S. relations with the Middle East and the Muslim world. Until now Obama has not kept the many promises he made in that speech, but now his words may be holding true.

The U.S. favors an orderly transition because it will give the government and people time to process the change, rather than a violent ousting of Mubarak, hence why the U.S. is softly urging him to start transitioning out of office. Alternatively a very slow transition in which Mubarak stays in power until September would not be ideal either because it would give the Muslim Brotherhood more time to gather support. In a Washington Post article Secretary of State Clinton stated that Egypt’s leadership should seek dialogue with the opposition, but as of yet no progress has been made on that front.

It will be interesting how the U.S. will handle this transition because Egypt has been an ally, but at the same time the Egyptian people have been cheated and deprived of their rights. Thus the U.S. cannot be too harsh in their dialogue, but they cannot be too weak because the people of Egypt are looking for support in their fight for freedom. To reference our class discussion about soft power last week, this is a prime opportunity for the U.S. to exercise our soft power. The Egyptian people want freedom and the U.S. has the opportunity to foster freedom and fair government within the nation. The U.S. has the potential to be a hero in this situation and exercise a fair amount of soft power but will the U.S. take the bait?

Links to the articles:

http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE71175920110206?WT.tsrc=Social%20Media&ca=rdt

http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/update_egypt

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/05/AR2011020501707_3.html?wpisrc=nl_headline&sid=ST2011020402531