Los Angeles, CA — Sen. John McCain is set to deliver a major foreign policy address this morning where he will emphasize the need for the US to be a good world citizen and listen to world opinion if the country expects to be listened to.

“When we believe international action is necessary, whether military, economic, or diplomatic, we will try to persuade our friends that we are right. But we, in return, must be willing to be persuaded by them,” he is expected to say. “America must be a model citizen if we want others to look to us as a model. How we behave at home affects how we are perceived abroad.”

Here is a short excerpt from the prepared text (full text after jump):

In such a world, where power of all kinds is more widely and evenly distributed, the United States cannot lead by virtue of its power alone. We must be strong politically, economically, and militarily. But we must also lead by attracting others to our cause, by demonstrating once again the virtues of freedom and democracy, by defending the rules of international civilized society and by creating the new international institutions necessary to advance the peace and freedoms we cherish. Perhaps above all, leadership in today’s world means accepting and fulfilling our responsibilities as a great nation.

One of those responsibilities is to be a good and reliable ally to our fellow democracies. We cannot build an enduring peace based on freedom by ourselves, and we do not want to. We have to strengthen our global alliances as the core of a new global compact — a League of Democracies — that can harness the vast influence of the more than one hundred democratic nations around the world to advance our values and defend our shared interests.

At the heart of this new compact must be mutual respect and trust. Recall the words of our founders in the Declaration of Independence, that we pay “decent respect to the opinions of mankind.” Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to succeed. We need to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies. When we believe international action is necessary, whether military, economic, or diplomatic, we will try to persuade our friends that we are right. But we, in return, must be willing to be persuaded by them.

America must be a model citizen if we want others to look to us as a model. How we behave at home affects how we are perceived abroad. We must fight the terrorists and at the same time defend the rights that are the foundation of our society. We can’t torture or treat inhumanely suspected terrorists we have captured. I believe we should close Guantanamo and work with our allies to forge a new international understanding on the disposition of dangerous detainees under our control.

There is such a thing as international good citizenship. We need to be good stewards of our planet and join with other nations to help preserve our common home. The risks of global warming have no borders. We and the other nations of the world must get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand off a much-diminished world to our grandchildren. We need a successor to the Kyoto Treaty, a cap-and-trade system that delivers the necessary environmental impact in an economically responsible manner. We Americans must lead by example and encourage the participation of the rest of the world, including most importantly, the developing economic powerhouses of China and India.

While he has previously emphasized the importance of diplomacy at times on the trail–the collective impact of the above section sends a powerful message—-an olive branch from a McCain White House to the world and veiled jabs at Bush foreign policy and the perceived damage it has done to the US relationship with it’s allies.

Also, the topics he hammers on a daily basis–Iraq and the war on terror—are pushed back into the last 1/3 of the speech . He takes a very sweeping, macro-look at the major issues facing the world, choosing to discuss AIDS and Africa, China/India, diplomacy and Latin America all before he gets to Iraq.

Though he does connect Iraq and the America as a good world citizen riff towards the end with this notable line:

“Our critics say America needs to repair its image in the world. How can they argue at the same time for the morally reprehensible abandonment of our responsibilities in Iraq?”

I will post some video excerpts after the speech.

(more…)

President Clinton says one of his wife’s first acts once she’s elected president will be to send him and President George H. W. Bush on a diplomatic mission around the world — only the former President Bush isn’t exactly on board with the idea.

President Clinton told the crowd at a campaign event in South Carolina on Monday that “the first thing she intends to do is to send me and former President Bush and a number of other people around the world to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again.” Sen Clinton repeats a generic version of this promise at nearly every stop — saying she’ll send prominent Americans of both parties around the world as soon as she’s elected to deliver the message that “the era of cowboy diplomacy is over.” She has also mentioned the elder President Bush as one Republican she’d consider for that assignment.

But President Bush’s office released a statement today saying “he has never discussed an ‘around-the world mission’ with either former President Bill Clinton or Senator Clinton, nor does he think such a mission is warranted since he is proud of the role America continues to play around the world as the beacon of hope for freedom and democracy.” A Clinton campaign spokesman says the senator has not asked the ex-president to play a role in a possible Clinton administration, but is merely using him as an example of the type of person she’d attempt to employ to restore America’s standing in the world.