Haas: Expand The G8



For some reason Senator Barack Obama has not felt the need to criticize Senator McCain's widely-discredited position on removing Russia from the G8. When even a solid McCain supporter like Henry Kissinger differs from the Arizona Senator, then that is the perfect departure point from to distinguish foreign policy maturity from outdated piece of Cold Warrior thinking. We hope that now with Joe Biden -- chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- on the ticket, McCain's eccentric position will be exposed robustly for the intellectual sham that it is. From Richard Haass, the President of the CFR, in Newsweek:

"We should lower U.S. barriers to Russia's joining the World Trade Organization, not raise them. We want Russia to live by the rule of law and to be more transparent and accountable. Autocratic Russia is more likely to evolve into something more open if it is integrated into modern institutions than if it is left outside. This argues, too, for keeping Russia in the G8 or, better yet, an expanded G8 (one that includes China, India and Brazil). The goal of U.S. foreign policy should be to get Russia to play by the rules, not try to circumvent them. What Richard Nixon said 40 years ago about China—that 'taking the long view, we simply cannot afford to leave China forever outside the family of nations, there to nurture its fantasies, cherish its hates and threaten its neighbors'—applies equally now to Russia."

More on "How To Manage Moscow" here.