The Overseas Booby Trap

The case's larger significance is that of the quintessential human-interest story, perfect for water-cooler and e-mail chat. Rarely have the personal and the political been in closer alignment on an international incident. Alas, that is the new standard that must be met for a foreign-policy issue to make it into the mainstream. Compare the coverage of the test-ban treaty last year and of Vladimir Putin's election as president of Russia last month to that devoted to little Elián. How many cable shows assessed proliferation issues? How many magazine covers of Putin?

There's no use whining about this. Short of war involving the United States, it probably won't change. What's possible, though, is to use the campaign to pose important foreign-policy questions that the press may view as off the news but that will emerge later as central. This requires asking questions that aren't in the headlines--to throw out a question about Colombia, say, when everyone else is focused on Cuba. Voters at campaign events are often better about this than horse-race-obsessed reporters. Faced with simple but substantive questions ("What should we do about AIDS in Africa?"), the candidates will have to flesh out their views on issues of sovereignty, technology and charity that will dominate the international agenda of the next president. The specifics of the questions won't tip the balance, but in a close election, the evidence of leadership contained in the answers just might.

© 2000