The 2008 presidential campaign was indeed a remarkable one, and not simply because of the final result.  Clearly this election cycle will have a significant impact on the perception of race in America and across the world.  It has set an important precedent that the best and the brightest can excel in even the most competitive and highly regarded aspects of national life.  What effect the election of an African American to the country’s highest office will have on the socio-economic fortunes of all ethnic minorities remains to be seen.  Will the success of one equate to an improved outcome for the many?  President Elect Obama’s campaign has also made substantial contributions to the art and science of campaigning.  His substantial grass-roots support base combined well with modern methods of communications to produce an incredibly effective fundraising machine that allowed the Senator to outspend his opponent 4 to one on television advertising in the final weeks of the campaign.  The Obama campaign’s techniques will no doubt be mined by politicians in other countries for strategic advantages in their election cycles. 

Obama’s policy agenda during the beginning of his first term will almost certainly focus on domestic economic and social concerns.  America is a rather conservative country when it comes to social policy, particularly when times are good.  However, the current economic crisis may present a real opportunity for the expansion of health provision, unemployment benefits, and even childcare.  While a sluggish economy may put real strains on tax revenues, this may also open up what political scientists call a “critical juncture,” those rare occasions when substantial rather than incremental change can occur.   

But what does all of this mean for those outside the US?  The scenes of celebration witnessed throughout the world at the announcement of Obama’s election show quite clearly that non-Americans feel they too have a large stake in the President’s policy decisions.  It is most likely the case that international distaste for the Republican Party is due to foreign security policy.  So called “cowboy diplomacy” is seen as both arrogant and destabilizing by many outside the US.  Perhaps the US will now take a different, and potentially more effective, approach to addressing tensions with Iran, China, Russia and North Korea.  The validity of such feelings will not be debated here, though it already seems apparent that Obama will not make radical shifts in US rhetoric towards Iran.  Nor will this brief suggest how an Obama presidency will change American security and military policy.  Rather, it will look very briefly at policy areas that may also have significant effects, perhaps even greater than security policy, on the rest of the world. 

Free Trade 

Obama’s stance on free trade has, at least in some circles, been the source of fierce debate.  He has stated that he believes America’s current relationship with increasing globalization produces too much benefit for the “winners” of globalization and creates significant negative impacts on American labor.  He has also stated that he is generally in favor of the expansion of free trade as long as it is combined with protections for American workers and the adoption of more stringent environmental standards.  While improved environmental standards may be justified as requiring the world’s producers to internalize their environmental costs, protections for American labor could be somewhat more troubling.  If such protections come in the form of operational subsidies, as is the case with agriculture, surely this will create significant market distortions and undermine much of the justification of free-trade.  If, however, such protections take the form of government benefits (funding for re-education or unemployment benefits) such protections may not be as troubling to potential trading partners.  One should keep in mind, though, that such protections are difficult to implement effectively, and generally governments have most success in absorbing job losses in so-called “exposed sectors” by expanding government employment rolls.  Such a strategy would be anathema to a huge percentage of the American population.  Of course, Obama has spoken very little about free trade in the second half of this year and may well have changed his stance under the new pressures of impending recession.   

Multilateral Approach to Foreign Policy 

America and the UN have not been on the best of terms in the past few years.  American foreign policy has tended towards the unilateralism of “cowboy diplomacy” since the first George W. Bush presidential term, much to the dismay of much of the rest of the world.  Obama, however, seems far more amenable to multilateral approaches to foreign policy, including a push to reengage with the UN.  He is said to have already been in contact with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and pledged new support of the UN as a global decision making body.  Multilateralism has another potential benefit that will make it attractive to President Elect Obama; it may allow for substantial cost spreading.  In a period where domestic social policy initiatives, not to mention bailout and economic stimulus packages, will put tremendous strain the Federal Government, opportunities to spread costs will be more than welcome.   

The tremendous amount of international good will may help combat America’s historical tendencies toward protectionism and isolationism when confronted with prolonged economic downturns.  The world’s leaders seem enthusiastic to engage the new President, and he, for his part, seems committed to doing the same.  His speaking tour through Europe no doubt showed him that he is, at least for the moment, very well received and that there are huge international resources waiting to be utilized. 

Environmental Policy 

            During his campaign, Obama made strong promises to address America’s contributions to the problem of global warming.  He has said that he plans to introduce legislation requiring the US to decrease carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, and substantially reduce domestic reliance on foreign sources of petroleum.  But the effective transition to more environmentally friendly sources of energy and meeting emissions targets have always proved a difficult goal to achieve not just for the United States, but for the rest of the world as well.  Even Europe, which has far greater public support for more stringent environment policy, has found it exceedingly difficult to stick to such policies even in far brighter economic times.   

            The United States faces a particularly difficult challenge in cutting energy consumption.  American cities are planned around the automobile.  Public transportation infrastructure is currently far more limited than in European cities, and even if America wished to undertake dramatic expansions in public transit housing clusters have not been built to make accessing transportation nodes easy.  What is far more likely is that vehicle efficiency standards will be increased to make driving more environmentally friendly.  However this will do little to combat the environmental impact of road construction and maintenance, not to mention the impact of manufacturing the cars themselves.   

            This assumption of cheap energy is extends to numerous areas of American life.  From the home to the workplace, the US has created a culture that depends on large energy consumption.  This is not to say that the US is incapable of making radical changes in its contributions to global climate change.  Rather, instituting policy to bring such changes about may be particularly painful here.  This is the setting in which an Obama presidency will have to operate, and he will face the additional challenge of a vast economic recession.   

            However, the US recession may also present additional opportunity to make headway in combating climate change.  There is already speculation that Obama will use investment in the development of renewable and low carbon energy sources as a method of injecting substantial capital in the struggling economy.  Such government spending would seek to stimulate economic activity while also contributing to improving America’s environmental stewardship.  There are, of course, numerous difficulties with such a strategy, and such plans may well be abandoned for more tried and tested methods of economic stimulus.  But an Obama presidency seems, at least initially, to be far more committed to taking a more aggressive approach to climate change than the previous presidents. 

Immigration 

While America’s internal debate on immigration is generally focused on border security and illegal immigrants from Latin America, Obama has also made campaign commitments to making immigration easier and more attractive to skilled workers from the rest of the world, including Europe.  With almost 700,000 Britons already living in the US, removing some additional barriers to immigration could make relocation to the States a more attractive prospect.  Of course current difficulties in the labor market make any real surge in immigration from Europe to the US somewhat unlikely, but if the States recover from current economic turmoil more rapidly than Europe one might see additional immigration across the pond. 

            Obviously any assertions about what an Obama presidency will mean to Britain and the rest of the world currently cannot escape the realm of conjecture.  But it is also clear that huge numbers of Americans and non-Americans alike are expecting a substantial shift in the policies of the US Federal Government.  No doubt the world will be watching intently to see how the rather amorphous promise of “change” translates into actual policy.