The international community's "responsibility to protect" populations from failed or predatory states is set to become the most hotly debated concept in foreign policy, no matter who becomes president on January 20, 2009. Bret Stephens explains why:
A solution for Zimbabwe's crisis isn't hard to come by: Someone - ideally the British - must remove Mr. Mugabe by force, install Mr. Tsvangirai as president, arm his supporters, prevent any rampages, and leave. "Saving Darfur" is a somewhat different story, but it also involves applying Western military force to whatever degree is necessary to get Khartoum to come to terms with an independent or autonomous Darfur. Burma? Same deal. ... So let's by all means end the hand-wringing and embrace the responsibility to protect, wherever necessary and feasible. Let's spare the thousands of innocents, punish the wicked, oppose tyrants, and support democrats - both in places where it is now fashionable to do so (Burma) and in places where it is not (Iraq). If that turns out to be Mr. Obama's foreign policy, it will be a worthy one. It does come oddly close to the Bush Doctrine.
Indeed, Obama's statement on Zimbabwe is arguably more interventionist than McCain's. Both Obama and McCain agree that Robert Mugabe's government is no longer legitimate. They both call for increased sanctions against the Mugabe gang. But Obama writes: "If fresh elections prove impossible, regional leaders backed by the international community should pursue an enforceable, negotiated political transition in Zimbabwe that would end repressive rule and enable genuine democracy to take root." That door to intervention is absent from McCain's statement, which suggests the administration "consider expelling Mugabe's diplomats from Washington and explore options with our friends in Africa and beyond, including suspending Zimbabwe's participation in regional organizations as long a Mugabe clings to power." Obama is already moving to the center on a host of issues. How will the Angry Left react when - not if - President Obama participates in the long and noble tradition of American humanitarian intervention?