U.S. President Barack Obama seems to be off to a very good start in foreign affairs.

The G20 meeting in London has been praised both by the participants and by many political observers. There was a broad consensus in the meeting about the seriousness of the world economic situation, and about what must be done about it. George Soros said in an interview that for once the political leaders "were ahead of the curve", i.e. they were forming world events rather than reacting to them.

In Istanbul President Obama made it convincingly clear that the United States is not in war against Islam. This has of course always been the case, but President Obama's predecessor, equipped with lesser understanding of different cultures than Mr. Obama, managed to plant antagonisms in issues that could instead have acted as basis for mutual interests, like the battle against terrorism.

President Obama was wiser. A new division in the world political map is emerging -- on one hand to those who are sensible and rational, and on the other to those who are not. He reminded us in Istanbul that the United States is committed to the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. Nothing else would be in Israel's best interests.

At home things don't unfortunately look as clear. Treasury Secretary Geithner's plan to rescue the U.S. banks has trigged heavy criticism by leading economists such as Jeffrey Sachs, Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, the latter two being Nobel Prize winners in economics. The critics claim that the plan will not work, and/or that it is simply a huge transfer of money from the American taxpayer to Wall Street.

It is perfectly clear that whatever Secretary Geithner had proposed it would have been met with doubts. There are probably as many opinions about the economy as there are economists, if not more. President Franklin Roosevelt wished for one-handed economic advisers, as he became tired of hearing "on one hand, and on the other". Still, Secretary Geithner has clearly not been able to establish an authoritative enough position - for valid or dubious reasons - and it might be that he will not. This is one of the biggest risks for the Obama presidency.

Olli Raade, Editor

April 7, 2009