April 21, 2009  

Barack Obama has added a new word to the American dictionary: “dialogue,” agreed Ricardo Lagos and Romano Prodi at a recent panel hosted by the Institute. In addition to sharing perspectives on the new US president, the former president of Chile and former prime minister of Italy reevaluated the role of the US in today’s context of global interdependence. Excerpts of their remarks are available in the video below.

Obama’s emphasis on dialogue will be crucial to solving the global economic crisis, said the statesmen, both of whom are also Brown professors at large. While many used to believe the US alone could solve the world’s problems, “That philosophy is over,” Lagos said. “The US can’t do it alone.”

“Getting out of the crisis... depends on the growing demand of developing countries,” Prodi agreed. Locating the root of the crisis in American overconsumption, he suggested that China and other “new players” will spur recovery and added that economic growth in Africa has recently outstripped growth in Europe. 

Lagos emphasized that since economic policies, not market forces, will repair the economy, “Politics is back.” Americans have demanded that their politicians address the crisis. Now citizens, not consumers, are in command of the political process, he said. “This is to have the human being in center stage,” Lagos said.

For Prodi, although the US will eventually need to analyze the human values implicit in the capitalist system, fast action should be first priority. “When we start recovery, we can think of social justice. Now the tension is... when will the recovery come?” Prodi asked.

In the foreign policy segment of the panel, Lagos’ and Prodi’s commentary addressed key issues in Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. Prodi urged the US to gain diplomatic and economic allies where they can most easily be gained. Relations with Russia, for example, are the “easiest to solve,” he said. “Possibilities for agreement are already on the table.”

Obama must also be assertive yet receptive in negotiations with Iran, Prodi said. Iran is now at the peak of its power and must negotiate with the US and the international community for non-aggression while it still has global influence. The US must communicate to Iran, “You have never been so powerful... It is time that you are wise and you make peace,” Prodi said.

Lagos identified the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and drug trafficking in Mexico as two key issues challenging US policy makers. In the case of Israel and Palestine, world leaders have repeatedly discussed the conflict but have failed to wield enough leverage to make concrete change, Lagos said.

Likewise, Lagos said that “Latin America is worried about Mexico, and the US has been part of the problem,” citing that the US has historically armed drug traffickers and provided a key market for drug sales. So far, however, the Obama administration has taken the right steps to face this issue, Lagos said.

Ultimately, Prodi and Lagos indicated that Obama’s soaring popularity is not undeserved. Leaders like Obama only come along “a few times in history,” Prodi said, “The secret is his IQ and also the self confidence that he has,” Prodi said, adding, “Obama is also the fruit of an open competition. This is not the case in all other countries.”

“[Obama] is something absolutely new, therefore his agenda is open, clean,” Lagos said, explaining Obama’s popularity abroad.

Lagos ended by sharing the lessons he learned doing his own term in office, stating that Obama’s biggest challenge is to retain the public’s trust while truthfully forecasting the difficulties ahead. “The test of a true leader,” Lagos said, is having to “explain why things are going to be worse tomorrow than today.” Not only this, leaders must pursue the path they devise in advance, sometimes going against their closest advisors. “What Obama does is precisely that,” Lagos said.

The talk was moderated by Open Source internet radio host Christopher Lydon, a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute.

By Watson Institute Student Rapporteur Juliana Friend ‘11