I have openly declared my admiration for Barack Obama before (here and here). I have always been very much preoccupied with the prospects of changes in American foreign policy – especially with respect to its ties with Europe and global organizations. I remember disagreeing with Antal Daniel, a Blogactiv blogger, on this issue. While I’ve always felt that Obama as president would mean a total shift of paradigm in world affairs, both this article written by Obama himself a year ago and his recent visit to Berlin make me think twice before claiming this. The story with the visit goes pretty much along these lines: Obama was more of a rock star than a politician, with extatic crowds of 200000 people cheering for him, and with a speech that reminded everybody of the messianic figures of the American nation (i.e. Kennedy and Reagan).

Obama called for renewed ties with Europe, reminding people on both sides of the Atlantic of their shared identity and of their need to fight global ills together. He spoke of lofty ideals such as global citizenship, anti-nuclear pledges and fair trade. His rhetoric was brilliant and nobody can deny it – not even McCain, jealous of all American media pundits having followed Obama in his European tour and of all important American TV stations broadcasting live Obama’s speech. You can read more about the content of his message here and here.

While I definitely admire the brilliant courage displayed by Obama’s campaign team in orchestrating this European tour, I cannot fail to notice two serious issues with his strategy:

1. Europeans are incredibly dissatisfied with the Bush administration and with how the US viewed the rest of the world in the last couple of year. Three out of four Europeans would vote for Obama. Probably three out of four New Yorkers would vote for Obama. But the United States is not Europe, and it’s not New York. “Real America” is far from what European yuppies share with America, and the question is how did Obama’s European tour impact on real Americans. I am afraid they were not very much pleased with his glamorous rhetoric…

2. Even The New York Times, renowned for its liberal views, criticized on its front page Obama’s failure to address real fault lines between Europe and the United States: Afghanistan, solid fuels, agricultural subsidies, trade. Do read this extremely interesting article in NY Times!

Thus, I wonder what would be the real and effective impact on Europe and global affairs in general should Obama become the next American president. Is it just pop star glamour or are there actually commitments to bringing about substantial change in how the United States acts in the world?