The Foreign Service Journal, September 2012

change, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other leaders took a share of credit for leading an international coalition to stop the slaughter of inno- cents. But as the ill-fated Turkish and Brazilian attempt to mediate with Iran two years ago shows, collaborative leadership is not easy to orchestrate. Withholding. At times the United States must pull back some of its own contributions, or threaten to do so, to induce others to do their part. For ex- ample, the NATO allies have spent decades arguing over Western Euro- pean underinvestment in military ca- pability. While last year’s intervention in Libya was an important display of Eu- ropean leadership, it also highlighted serious gaps in the continent’s hard power. Much of the problem stems from the moral hazard of relying on the U.S. military presence, which Wash- ington is now reducing. Peer pressure. Another of the re- sponsibility doctrine’s techniques is to form coalitions with other nations to shape a country’s behavior. This has long been standard practice in state- craft, but the Obama administration is bringing it to a new level with emerg- ing powers. In 2009 and 2010 Beijing assertively pressed its South China Sea territorial claims. In its role as security guarantor in the Pacific, the U.S. swiftly provided reassurance to rattled Southeast Asian nations. The issue came to a head at a July 2010 meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, where Sec. Clinton joined her regional counter- parts in a forceful call for a multilateral solution to these disputes. While it continues to assert its claims, Beijing has moderated its tone somewhat. The administration has also lever- aged international peer pressure re- garding China’s undervalued currency. First, it encouraged countries like Brazil and Indonesia to highlight how an artificially low renminbi under- mines their own exports. Washington also made China’s currency an issue at the 2010 Group of 20 forum; as a re- sult, the renminbi tends to strengthen S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 49 Rather than resenting others’ growing roles, Americans should see them as signs of our own successful leadership.