Listen to James Rubin's speech on America's role in the world
A former official for the Clinton administration has slammed US President Barack Obama for his timid foreign policy, and said that Hillary Clinton would do a better job if she had the position.
James Rubin, who served as chief spokesman for the US State Department between 1997 and 2000, said in a speech at the York Festival of Ideas on Thursday that Obama had allowed America to “begin to return to normalcy,” ending the prominent role it has played on the world stage since the Second World War.
Rubin said that, under Obama, America no longer acted with the “enlightened self-interest” it displayed when it intervened in Kosovo to curb Serbian aggression against the country in 1999.
The current crisis in north Iraq, where the militant group ISIS have seized cities and military bases, is in part a consequence of the US’s failure to intervene in Syria, he argued.
“The world is not naturally a safe and happy place. It becomes safer and happier when the US has played the proper role… [of] an indispensible supporter of peace,” he said.
In a Q&A session after the speech with Prospect's managing editor Jonathan Derbyshire, Rubin said that were Hillary Clinton to become President she would likely pursue a more interventionist agenda, looking to protect not only US interests but also those of the wider world. Based on hawkish views expressed in her memoir, Hard Choices, and in recent interviews, he said that if Clinton is elected “I think you will see a leaning towards the kind of major role for the United States that I would hope for.”
Clinton is widely expected to make a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
Click below to listen to James Rubin's speech on America's role in the world:
A former official for the Clinton administration has slammed US President Barack Obama for his timid foreign policy, and said that Hillary Clinton would do a better job if she had the position.
James Rubin, who served as chief spokesman for the US State Department between 1997 and 2000, said in a speech at the York Festival of Ideas on Thursday that Obama had allowed America to “begin to return to normalcy,” ending the prominent role it has played on the world stage since the Second World War.
Rubin said that, under Obama, America no longer acted with the “enlightened self-interest” it displayed when it intervened in Kosovo to curb Serbian aggression against the country in 1999.
The current crisis in north Iraq, where the militant group ISIS have seized cities and military bases, is in part a consequence of the US’s failure to intervene in Syria, he argued.
“The world is not naturally a safe and happy place. It becomes safer and happier when the US has played the proper role… [of] an indispensible supporter of peace,” he said.
In a Q&A session after the speech with Prospect's managing editor Jonathan Derbyshire, Rubin said that were Hillary Clinton to become President she would likely pursue a more interventionist agenda, looking to protect not only US interests but also those of the wider world. Based on hawkish views expressed in her memoir, Hard Choices, and in recent interviews, he said that if Clinton is elected “I think you will see a leaning towards the kind of major role for the United States that I would hope for.”
Clinton is widely expected to make a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
Click below to listen to James Rubin's speech on America's role in the world:
