As Clinton Leaves the Ring

To watch President Bill Clinton in action over these last eight years has been a little like watching a judo athlete--flexibly engaging opponents before making the decisive move to throw them off-balance. No one doubts Clinton's intelligence, alertness, and presence of mind; nonetheless, as president, he has been more of a sportsman or man of action than an intellectual.

Compared with previous presidents, one cannot but help feel Clinton lacks "oriental" self-control and maturity, the gravitas and substance one expects in the defining figures of history. For example, the defense of his personal problems has made people around the world realize just how massive lawyers' fees are in the United States. With all his pathos and bathos, Clinton's persona has been more suitable to melodrama than to a heroic struggle in a quest for ends larger than himself.

This is not entirely his own fault, nor is it by any means a bad thing. Clinton did not preside over any earth-shaking historical event on the scale of reestablishing diplomatic relations with China by President Richard Nixon, the collapse of the communist Soviet Union facilitated by President Ronald Reagan, or the victory in the Persian Gulf War orchestrated by President George Bush. Nor has he achieved anything to match fellow Democratic president John Kennedy's handling of the Cuban missile crisis. In part, this is due to the fact that the Clinton administration has been in power during an age of global fragmentation and soul-searching in the aftermath of the Cold War.

The god of history assigns politicians their historical roles, with a more or less capricious hand. Clinton was elected president after the end of the titanic clash with the Soviet Union, at a time when the United States was free to act as the world's sole superpower. Even though the Republican-dominated Congress rejected some of Clinton's reform proposals and restricted his room for maneuvering, by and large, he was blessed with a freedom of choice of action and the chance to achieve results backed by U.S. might of which past presidents could only dream. Clinton was fortunate enough to reap the benefits of the success of his predecessors, whose financial, fiscal, and trade policies laid the foundations for the dramatic U.S. economic recovery.

The Clinton administration was motivated by three main objectives: to establish definitively the hegemonic leadership of the United States; to promote U.S. economic prosperity and expand the market economy throughout the world; and to advance human rights and democratic institutions. Generally speaking, Clinton's domestic and international achievements have exceeded the average accomplishment of U.S. presidents; however slow in coming or seemingly small, over time they will deliver steady and substantive gains for the United States.

Globally, the Clinton administration scored a number of important achievements. These included

• managing the unprecedented prosperity of the U.S. economy which, apart from having benefited the United States, has served as an anchor for sustained global recovery and prosperity in a time of uncertainty;

• seizing the lead in information technology, making the United States the driving force behind a new global industrial revolution and knowledge-based civilization;

• signing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA);

• expanding eastward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); and

• ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Clinton administration's achievements also include brokering the Northern Ireland peace agreement, decisively intervening in Yugoslavia, and continuing efforts to sustain the Middle East peace process. Other Clinton administration actions, such as the following, however, have elicited international criticism:

• refusal to sign the Landmine Ban Treaty;

• failure to push the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) through Congress;

• mishandling the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit in Seattle;

• policy delays and confusion over the East Asian currency crisis;

• neglect of international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), World Bank, and International Monetary Fund, and a tendency toward unilateralism in foreign policy; and

• neglect of global environmental policy.

North Korea...