In his first full interview with the BBC, Barack Obama has said that the US cannot impose its values on other countries. Some Republican critics have immediately accused Obama of apologising (once again) for the actions of the Bush Administration. This Obama flatly rejected. But they are missing the point. If anything, Obama reinforced America's belief in its own exceptionalism as the basis of its foreign policy, saying that the rule of law, democracy and freedoms of speech and religion were "universal values".
"These are values that are important, even when it's hard," he said.
Obama might have conceded that "The danger, I think, is when the United States, or any country, thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture," but his message was nuanced. When asked whether he would encourage other countries to adopt such values, Obama replied "absolutely we'll be encouraging". The question is, in what way? One would hope through soft power, and not the hard edge of the Bush Doctrine. Only time will tell, but the belief in exceptionalism remains...
Check out the full interview at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/8078217.stm
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