US and Russia: A Common Cause (HONG KONG)

Harvard professor and author Joseph Nye, who coined the idea of "smart power" in international relations, visualizes United States President Barack Obama as a consummate politician and statesman. Nye wrote recently that Obama is gifted with the right "contextual intelligence" to combine soft power with hard power in variable mixes to suit different situations to produce successful combinations.

"Contextual intelligence," Nye elaborated, "is the intuitive diagnostic skill that helps a leader align tactics with objectives to produce smart strategies in different situations." From all indications, Obama's "contextual intelligence" was trained on the Kremlin last week. The Russians are thrilled.

They don't know much about "smart power" and habitually trust "hard power", but they are au fait with tactics and strategy. The Kremlin is warming to Obama. But detractors ranging from hardliners in the US to "New Europeans" and Iranians have cause to worry. They dread that if Obama pursues this obscure Marxist-Leninist track to its logical conclusion, he and the Kremlin leaders might enter into trade-offs and it could be at their expense.

FULL ARTICLE