A Lost Opportunity : The Flawed Implementation of Assertive Multilateralism (1991-1993)

Abstract

Bill Clinton did not seek the presidency to initiate an activist foreign policy in the aftermath of the Cold War, but instead to champion domestic affairs and economic renewal. However, his foreign policy advisers entered office with their own, often differing, interpretations of the United States' position in the post-Cold War era. After the unity demonstrated by the Gulf War, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations advocated a tactic of Assertive Multilateralism with which to provide international leadership. This acknowledged President George H.W. Bush's approach to foreign policy and was viewed as a way to reduce costs, casualties and American exposure in overseas deployments. Despite these hopes, Assertive Multilateralism did not prevail -why was this the case? Twenty years on, this paper analyses the concept of Assertive Multilateralism, and specifically, the challenges posed to its continued implementation by the Somali mission. The paper finds that unrealistic mission expectations, the prioritizing of domestic agendas, and an inability to control the mission narrative all contributed to cause a fundamental shift in the United States' implementation of foreign policy and raised doubts over its continued commitment to the United Nations. Ultimately, the events in Somalia ensured that foreign policy become a tool with which to attack an administration focused on domestic affairs and unwilling to expend political capital on overseas operations.2 Given the historic junction at which the Clinton Administration came to power it is surprising that more has not been written on its foreign policy initiatives. Nancy Soderberg noted in 2005 "no insider of the Clinton White House has discussed the broad challenges involving the use of force and diplomacy faced by the administration." Such a pattern continues, with no former Clinton official having adequately addressed the administration's development of foreign policy. Accordingly, the administration risks A Lost Opportunity : The Flawed Implementation of Assertive Multilateralism (...

Taking charge and taking stock

“…In addition to Lake and Berger, Ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, was committed to the mission, having spent the 1980s on the Georgetown University faculty developing the concept of Assertive Multilateralism. 78 This posited that if the United States no longer had the political will or the resources to act as a global policeman, it should form coalitions to do so. It meant, "that when America acted with others, [America] should lead in establishing goals and ensuring success."…”