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发帖数: 1840 | 1 作者是Edward Goldberg，听起来名字是犹太人，奥巴马外交精选团队外交政策的主将
之一，Thomas Friedman经常引用他的文章，
这篇是佛里德曼最近提到的一篇，认为美国失去了埃及，而中国（准确的讲，中国的理
念）得到的埃及。看来共和党批判奥巴马团队充满了赤化分子真的不是没道理（不是还
有一个幕僚的说她最推崇的两个人之一是老毛么？）。这哥们放的炮连真五毛都不敢这么讲
http://www.theglobalist.com/storyid.aspx?StoryId=8989
Who Lost Egypt?
By Edward Goldberg | Friday, February 11, 2011
However the impending power shift in Egypt plays out, one can already hear
the simplistic charges that Obama lost Egypt — as if it were America’s to
lose. Eddie Goldberg argues these charges say more about America’s failure
to appreciate the new global landscape than about anything the Obama
Administration did or did not do.
America did not lose Egypt. Rather, China — and what China represents —
gained Egypt.
China and Egypt, arguably the two oldest countries if not nation-states in
the world, have a broadly similar history: Both were major empires in
ancient times, and both were able to stay geographically and somewhat
culturally intact over the centuries.
Faux communist China has been able to do what Stalin and Krushchev only
dreamed of: becoming a successful model for other countries.
Equally important is the fact that, although both countries were severely
manipulated by colonial powers, neither country during the last 200 years
fell completely under colonial rule for any long period of time.
And finally, both had uprisings led by politically frustrated young people,
China in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 and Egypt in Cairo’s Tahrir
Square today.
But the key difference between Tiananmen Square and Tahrir Square is how
America has changed in the eyes of the world. At Tiananmen, America was the
ideal, the Statue of Liberty the unofficial symbol of the demonstration. In
Cairo, America is not the hope for tomorrow — but the overly pragmatic
broker, playing an overly cautious “Old World”-type game.
Of course, since Tiananmen Square, China has developed into the second-
largest economy in the world, while Egypt, with its almost Brezhnevian-style
leadership, continues to wallow in the past.
And that difference — the fact that a non-western country, a country more
economically despondent than Egypt was 40 years ago, can now successfully
challenge the West economically — is the siren song that Egyptians are now
listening to on the Internet.
In business school, students are taught about the value proposition: Value =
Benefits/Price (with “price” taking into account such things as money,
time and effort). As Warren Keegan, author of the leading textbook on global
marketing, states, “For any organization operating anywhere in the world,
the essence of marketing is to surpass the competition at creating perceived
value for the customer.” Technology, particularly the Internet, has
expanded this concept by creating a Greek chorus around the customer.
The key difference between Tiananmen Square and Tahrir Square is how America
has changed in the eyes of the world.
Technology and globalization have also made the understanding of the value
proposition, along with the concept of a surrounding chorus, a key component
of a nation’s foreign policy.
Successful foreign policy is no longer just about building coalitions of
like-minded states or playing one nation against another for the benefit of
one’s home country. The Internet, in its ability to radically democratize
everything, to take decision-making away from leadership, has forced
governments to more closely define the benefits and values they offer to the
citizenry of other countries.
China’s value proposition — its “Internet message” — is clear-cut: You
might not have the liberties as described by the Enlightenment philosophers,
but that is a small sacrifice (according to the Chinese value proposition)
when weighed against the economic dynamism of China's autocapitalism.
In essence, China has taken Emma Lazarus’ poem from the base of the Statue
of Liberty and reinterpreted it to say, “Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to be rich. I lift my lamp above the non-
western door.”
Ironically, faux communist China, with its successful mix of capitalism and
autocracy that stresses economic development and societal stability while
severely limiting civil liberties, has been able to do what Stalin and
Khrushchev only dreamed of: becoming a successful model for other countries.
The value proposition the world sees on the web today from America is more
diffuse. By definition, the United States has a more difficult message than
China’s. For America’s message is not only prosperity, but also prosperity
with democracy, prosperity that includes individual rights and liberties.
To market this message successfully, both parts of the equation must be in
sync.
In the 22 years since Tiananmen Square, America’s value proposition, like
its politics, has failed to keep up both as a realistic symbol of a better
world and as an economic engine that represents that ideal. Our foreign
policy has swung between the realpolitik of George H.W. Bush to the overly
simplistic “let’s invade to create democracy” policy of George W. Bush.
The United States has a more difficult message than China’s. For America’s
message is not only prosperity, but also prosperity with democracy.
We have purposely looked the other way as our one truly democratic ally in
the Middle East, Israel, ignores our values and acts like the post-war
Soviet Union in keeping and settling on lands won in war. This feeds the
impression in the rest of the Middle East that the United States does not
represent democracy, but an indirect form of imperialism.
At the same time, our economic model that we so proudly boasted about has
been diminished by the recession. Simultaneously, our political inability to
see as a people the need to invest in our own future — whether in
education, infrastructure or any public endeavor save for defense — calls
into question whether our system has been so encumbered by tradition and
special interests that it can no longer represent the commonweal.
Sadly, totalitarianism won over Lady Liberty 22 years ago in China. And
although there is an amorphous call for freedom as part of the Cairo
demonstration, it is not necessarily a call to be identified with American
values of freedom.
America must be perceptive enough to make the necessary changes both at home
and abroad so that it can re-assert its true value proposition, so that
once again the symbol of the demonstrators is the Statue of Liberty.
Without these changes, America will grow more and more isolated within a
world of newly empowered global techno citizens. | x*********g
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