经济学人下载:巴拉克.奥巴马的中东政策

Barack Obama's Middle East policy巴拉克.奥巴马的中东政策

From Oslo to Benghazi从奥斯陆到班加西

A Nobel prizewinner’s voyage of discovery 一个诺贝尔和平奖获得者的发现之旅

WHEN he collected his Nobel peace prize from Oslo in December 2009, Barack Obama acknowledged the oddity of receiving such an honour while commanding the American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also made it plain that the use of force might be justified on humanitarian grounds—as, in his view, it had been in the Balkans in the 1990s. To that extent, at least, he had prepared the ground for Libya. It has nonetheless come as a shock to many Americans to find themselves plunged so abruptly into a new war in an Arab country. How did that peaceable Mr Obama get them into this?

2009年12月，贝拉克??奥巴马在奥斯陆领取诺贝尔和平奖时承认，他在指挥着美国领导的在伊拉克和阿富汗的战争之时，获得这样一项荣誉比较奇怪。他还坦言，在人道主义立场下使用武力可能是正义的，比如，在他看来，20世纪90年代在巴尔干半岛使用武力就是如此。至少在那种程度下，他已经对在利比亚的立场埋下了伏笔。但是，许多美国人对迅速投入到对一个阿拉伯国家的战争中感到吃惊。温和的奥巴马怎么会把他们卷到这种状况？

From the very beginning of his presidency Mr Obama had little choice but to run an active policy in the Middle East. He needed to extricate American forces from Iraq (the better to prosecute the war in Afghanistan); he faced the continuing challenge of Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons programme; he had to carry on the fight against al-Qaeda; and, like many presidents, he inherited an explosive stalemate in Palestine. But to these pressing practical demands he added a broader aspiration: repairing the damage done by George Bush’s reaction to the attacks of September 11th 2001 on America’s relations with the Muslim world, especially with the Arabs.

从奥巴马担任总统的那一刻起，他就没有什么选择，只能在中东推行积极的政策。他需要从伊拉克撤出美军（比继续进行在阿富汗的战争要好）；他面临着怀疑伊朗在实施核武器项目的持续挑战；他不得不展开对基地组织的打击；跟许多总统一样，他也接手了在巴勒斯坦的火药味十足的僵局。但是，在这些迫切的实际要求之外，他添加了一个更广泛的愿望：修补美国与穆斯林世界尤其是阿拉伯国家的关系，这些外交关系由于乔治??布什对2001年“9??11”袭击的强烈反应而遭到破坏。

In June 2009 Mr Obama gave voice to the aspiration in a speech in Cairo, where he was the guest of the then dictator, Hosni Mubarak. He told his eager audience that he was seeking “a new beginning” based on “mutual interest and mutual respect”. He also spoke at length about democracy, and the controversy generated by America’s push for it in the wake of the Iraq war. Mr Obama’s argument was that “no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other”. America did not presume to know what was best for everyone. But that did not lessen his commitment “to governments that reflect the will of the people”.

2009年6月，奥巴马在开罗的一篇演讲中表达了上述愿望。在那里，他是当时的独裁者胡斯尼??穆巴拉克的贵宾，他对热切的听众说，他在谋求一种建立在“共同利益和相互尊重”之上的“新的开端”。他还用较大篇幅谈论民主，以及在伊拉克战争后美国推动民主所引发的争议。奥巴马的观点是，“没有那种治国体制可以由一个国家强加给另外一个国家”。美国没有认为自己知道什么体制对每个人来说都是最好的，但是这也没有弱化他对“体现人民意志的政府”的承诺。