Panelists debated the United States’s position as a beacon on a hill and status as a world leader at a foreign policy forum Thursday evening in the University’s Holliday Forum.
Political science professor David Sobek said the United States never was a beacon.
“Even at the end of the Cold War, the communist bloc did not like us,” Sobek said.
Political science professor Harry Mokeba said the brightest time in the world was President Barack Obama’s 2008 election.
“On TV5, they still can’t stop talking about Obama, no matter what the French president’s done,” Mokeba said.
Panelists also rated the possibility of Israel reacting to nuclear-armed Iran.
Sobek and Mokeba agreed on about a 4 out of 10 rating of action before the election.
Political science professor Daniel Tirone rated the possibility of action at a 9.
Mokeba said he believes electing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would be more helpful in Israel than a re-election of Obama.
“I think there is some concern that Israel is not well-connected with the U.S., but at the end of the day, the U.S. and Israel are still friends,” said Tirone.
Mokeba and former University student-turned-journalist Alyson Neel, participating via Skype from Istanbul, both said the international view on President Obama is similar to views held by American Democrats, and that is disappointment.
Neel said the Turks to whom she has spoken feel Romney is still the worse alternative, due to his connections with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mokeba said the international worry with Obama now is that “he has made the world outside the United States feel like they don’t matter to him.”
A main talking point of the forum was United States involvement in foreign governmental affairs.
“It boils down to this: how much do you support the march of democracy versus how much you support a regime that is pro-American? Just because we overthrew Gadhafi doesn’t mean Libyans like us,” Sobek said.“There is a price of oil at which you are going to say a Saudi monarchy is okay.”
Shifting to another part of the world, panelists agreed the United States and China have a “highly interdependent relationship.”
Sobek pointed out that a book published in 1913 talked about how interdependent relations were in Europe just before World War I.
“I’m not saying we’re going to invade China tomorrow. But if they get more territorial and come up against South Korea or Japan, what would we do?” Sobek asked.
“On TV5, they still can’t stop talking about Obama, no matter what the French president’s done.”
