The Economist has an in-depth piece on the international progress being in Sudan. Why is the dictatorial regime of Omar al-Bashir suddenly in "full conciliation mode"? There are a few reasons, but one of the strongest is Barack Obama.
And now there is President-elect Obama to contend with. Sudan may be the only country in the world where President George Bush is popular and the Democrats loathed and feared, at least by the regime.
Geez, I thought all these dictators loved Obama! Seems like the truth of the matter is that the Obama administration is going to be less-willing to cut deals with the butchers of Darfur for imaginary tidbits of information on Al-Qaeda.
The [Sudanese] government’s priority has always been to come off the American list of state sponsors of terror, to repair its severed relations with the West in general and to see the end of the economic sanctions against it. America can deliver all this in return for improvements in Darfur, elections and much else. The Obama factor is already at work here. The argument to the Sudanese is: "Cut a deal now—or expect much worse come January." The result is, as one Western diplomat puts it, "a government in full conciliation mode", firmly on the back foot.
Putting genocidal dictators on notice. William Schulz, writing in the Boston Globe today called it a New Era for Human Rights, and calls for immediate high-level pressure on Sudan:
Send the secretary of state to Sudan. The United States has denounced the mass atrocities in Darfur but failed to mount a concerted effort to stop them. The new secretary of state should make Khartoum the first foreign destination and should deliver a firm message of resolve. Appointing a high-level US envoy (Colin Powell?) to shepherd a renewed initiative to bring peace to Darfur would reinforce Obama's seriousness in resolving the crisis.
Make no mistake, Obama and his team know how to put the power in soft power. The power of an international courtroom, the verdict of global opinion, these will become, once again, powerful tools in Obama's arsenal.
For too long, the butchers of the world have been able to fend off the Bush administration with tidbits of low-level intel that haven't brought Osama Bin Laden to justice. Bush's biggest "success" in dealing with dictators was North Korea, who managed to explode a nuclear device during his term. Bush's success was just getting the DPRK back to where Clinton had left it.
Having Bush as president was like having a particularly ineffective substitute teacher. Now that Obama's entering the White House, class is about to be in session.