Richardson New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson Wrote

Richardson

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson wrote the article "A New Realism" to express the ideas about the necessity of creating foreign policy in the new era. This is because in the post-9/11 society, the greatest threat to the United States is not other nations, but the fundamentalist terrorist who situate themselves in positions to cause harm. Instead of ideological differences between nations, it is more becoming about ideological differences between groups of people. Even a small group of violent terrorists can have an enormous effect on the political and economical structure of a targeted group.

Richardson explains that rather than formulate new strategies to handle this modern enemy, the United States is working as though terrorist groups like Al Queda are well-trained armies of a country. "Rather than meeting radically new security challenges with radically new approaches, the U.S. government has fought the 'war on terror' the old-fashioned way, that is to say, with military force" (Richardson 2007,-page 26). His view is that insurgent terrorists cannot be fought with military force because they do not have organized waves of attack. Usually, they are random acts of violence. The attacks that are thought out ahead of time are rarely if ever military targets. Instead, the terrorists are more likely to attack civilian areas.

The other problem with the United States policy towards military forces against terrorist groups is the failure to embrace the other nations of the world as economic strengths. The world economy has grown and increased in the years since 9/11 while the economy of the United States has grown worse and weaker every year. The United States has always been a world power, a country other nations could turn to for influence regarding their economy and political and philosophical viewpoints. Since the War on Terror began, the opinions of many of these nations has changed and they now view the United States as more impetuous and less thoughtful in their strategizing. "The war in Iraq has demonstrated that raw U.S. power cannot transform the Middle East -- instead, it has shown that the unrestrained and careless use of that power can damage credibility and weaken alliances" (Richardson 2007,-page 27). So, instead of continuing in the advantageous position of trendsetter to a world that is growing less inspired by the decisions of the United States, it is better if the focus of the American government move inward and focus on maintaining the position of power it still has instead of trying to increase the scope of that influence, at least until the time has come where the attitudes of the world leaders once again slant in favor of the U.S.