The Vice President of the United States was in Munich, Germany over the weekend where he outlined the foreign policy objectives of the Obama administration. To attentive ears across the continent, and politicians assembled in that Bavarian city, Joe Biden offered only one thing: more of the same.

Biden told U.S. partners in Europe that more help was needed in Afghanistan, and that real progress was being achieved in Iraq, both things said by George W. Bush in the latter years of his presidency. Fortunately for them, the people and leadership of Europe are smart enough to know that additional  lives aren’t worth expending in a conflict wherein abandonment may be the ultimate result. The Afghan war is just, and should be fought until won, but so too was the controversial excursion into Iraq that many are so keen to end, win or lose.

Additionally, the former senior senator from Delaware in his remarks renewed calls for deliberate efforts spread democracy in the world, though not necessarily by military force.

To meet the challenges of this new century, defense and diplomacy are necessary. But quite frankly, ladies and gentlemen, they are not sufficient. We also need to wield development and democracy, two of the most powerful weapons in our collective arsenals. Poor societies and dysfunctional states, as you know as well as I do, can become breeding grounds for extremism, conflict and disease. Non-democratic nations frustrate the rightful aspirations of their citizens and fuel resentment.

If, as implied, the U.S. sponsors untested opposition groups in the unfree states of the world, said groups may lose credibility with their populations. The only time such efforts on the part of U.S. were really successful was in the aftermath of World War II, in the wreckage of countries broken by war, and where U.S. forces were present or had only recently left. Funding opposition groups also has risks for said groups when geostrategic calculations change.

The Vice President also addressed the planned missile defense shield, and the components thereof, being constructed in eastern central Europe. As expected, he reiterated that the shield is directed at Iran, and not Russia. Nonetheless, Biden’s further comments on the matter suggest otherwise, as if Polish and Czech enthusiasm for the project weren’t enough. Calling for “pushing the reset button” on U.S.-Russian relatons is a lofty aim, but the U.S. Vice President undermined his own desires by suggesting that the status of the missile shield was negotiable with Russia. A missile shield aimed at preventing Iran from attacking Europe is not something about which to negotiate with Russia. The new U.S. administration offers no real change in sixteen years of bad diplomacy with the Russian Federation.

Most telling of all, however, in Biden’s speech was an absurd claim that is the basis for the title of this post. The Vice President claimed that the United States would not stand for (other) countries having spheres of influence. Whether he forgot or did not know that his own country retains a sphere of influence is a legitimate point of concern. Perhaps the Vice President just does not get that much of the world dislikes this union of states and its leadership not (just) because of a policy whereby prisoners taken on foreign battlefields aren’t treated like soldiers while in custody, but because of hypocritical policy goals and pronouncements.

Despite warm diplomatic rhetoric, Europe too now knows what Americans have realized for over two weeks now: the promised change in Washington has yet to be seen.

Last 5 posts by James Kane

• A November to Remember - November 8th, 2010
• On hope and fear - October 18th, 2010
• Expecting Different Results - September 12th, 2010
• A glaring omission on Iraq - August 31st, 2010
• Employing a losing strategy - August 7th, 2010