US strategic retreat could encourage globalism

The United States continues to come up short as it focuses its diplomatic strength on dealing with three major crises - Iraq, Iran and the Korean Peninsula. Not just a failure of the Bush administration, the roots go back to the end of the Cold War. But the dismal diplomacy may actually be opening up new options for international cooperation.

At the top of the only superpower's diplomatic concerns: Iraq's security and day-to-day life continue to deteriorate. Diplomacy over the Iranian nuclear issue is faring little better, as the new UN Resolution 1747 has not persuaded President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government to abandon its nuclear ambitions. And the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) denuclearization process is stalled over the details of the US unfreezing DPRK funds.

Elsewhere things have not gone to America's liking. Its greater Central Asia plan has not proceeded smoothly. Relations between the United States and some of the Central Asian nations where the "color revolution" took place failed to warm up.