Feature

Perspectives in Politics

A new U.S. administration must bring change to the war in Iraq. This was the conclusion of a panel of experts examining challenges that will face a new president during the Harris School's spring 2008 Dean's International Council meeting held in Chicago, May 5-7.

According to Charles Lipson, professor at the University of Chicago Department of Political Science, the incoming president will have the difficult task of deciding what action to take next in a war whose first few years were "almost a total fiasco."

A new administration needs to focus first and foremost on the Middle East, beginning with the Iraq War and Islamic extremism. Lipson explained, "Despite all the talk about U.S. decline, the U.S. is the only state in the world with global reach-economically, diplomatically, militarily," he said. Partly because its interests are more expansive than those of other countries, the United States has a unique role to play in global affairs and other countries naturally turn to it for assistance.

Fresh from covering Senator Barack Obama's campaign in Indiana, Peter Slevin, Chicago bureau chief for The Washington Post, observed that "[Obama] talks often about [the Iraq War], but in ways that are not as obvious or quite as directly connected to the war itself." Obama refers to it as the "fight abroad" because the issue has receded in the campaign.

In agreement with Slevin, Harris School Associate Professor William Howell noted that attention to the war-both by the media and campaigns-has faded. This is especially true for Democrats as is the war not a high concern for Democratic primary voters and Obama and Clinton hold similar policy stances on it.

In examination of other issues besides the war, Lipson said a new administration should also focus on Iran-one of largest state-backed sponsor of terrorism and extremist religious movements; China's rising regional power; and global economic interdependence.

But Howell told audience members, "The prominence of the Iraq War will resurface when we go to the general election." However, there is not much consensus on how to proceed or even how large of an issue this is for voters. Howell said while President George W. Bush has low approval ratings, opinions about the president and the war are clearly split along party lines.

And despite the commonly held idea that the public is not well educated on foreign policy matters, polling data shows that the Iraq War is a major issue in the election. "The stakes involved are really high in this particular election when you think about the differences across the Democratic and Republican nominees," he stressed.

"In my view, this election, more than anything else, is about future of the Iraq War," concluded Howell. "It is the issue the American public is struggling with."