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Gambia News : US embassy holds video conference on Obama administrations diplomacy

The event, which was attended by members of parliament, opposition politicians, journalists and members of the civil society, took the form of a question and answer session with Associate Professor Steven Ekovich of the American University of Paris International Comparative Politics department.

According to him Obama’s approach to politics is that of a unifier and his administration is putting emphasis on ’smart power’ through the use of dialogue, consultation, negotiation and diplomacy. However he still used the military to bomb the Taliban in Afghanistan two days ago.

He noted that Obama’s priorities are the economy, the Middle East and the Israel/Palestine conflict. On Africa, he said even though the Bush African policy was very much appreciated as it provided a great deal of assistance to Africa, he expected no drastic change to that policy though there will be improvements.

He indicated that an African-American president can be ’much tougher one you and during the campaign Obama even accused Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe of stealing the election.

As a president with African roots, he said Obama will carry more weight in Africa and can in fact speak to African leaders as he would to blacks in a way a white American cannot.

With Hilary Clinton referring to the Darfur situation as genocide, he said Obama will be able to apply more pressure on African leaders for the need to respect human rights and the political rights of their people.

The briefing covered wide ranging questions on both the US economy and politics and on international developments in Africa, Europe and Asia. It lasted for about one and a half hours.