With the stroke of a pen, Obama brought an end to the "war on terror" as previous president George W. Bush had defined it, signalling that the US government will not breach international or US law in battling its enemies.
Key components of the structure developed under the Bush administration have now been abolished. As expected, Obama ordered the closure of the controversial Guantánamo detention camp (EurActiv 13/01/09), while the CIA is now prohibited from maintaining its own prisons overseas, which irked the EU during the former US administration (EurActiv 23/04/07).
In a sign of his determination to make diplomacy a stronger tool, Obama went to the State Department yesterday (23 January), a day after the US Senate voted to confirm Hillary Clinton's nomination as secretary of state.
Obama installed two heavyweights in the State Department to handle the Middle East crisis and the situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Obama and Clinton jointly introduced George J. Mitchell, special envoy for the Middle East, and Richard Holbrooke, who will fulfil the role for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Mitchell, a former Senate majority leader, helped broker a peace agreement in Northern Ireland, while Holbrooke, a longtime diplomat and formerly America's ambassador to the UN, played a central role in drafting the 1995 Dayton peace accords, which ended the war in Bosnia.
EU to help the new US president
In the meantime, EU foreign ministers are preparing to meet on Monday in Brussels, when they are expected to discuss how to help the US administration to close Guantánamo by accepting former detainees on their soil.
No common EU position is expected, because some countries have ruled out accepting Guantánamo detainees. But Portugal, Ireland, France, Germany and some other countries are considering granting asylum status to released detainees for whom a return to their home countries may pose threats to their safety.
The Czech EU Presidency issued a statement welcoming Obama's decision to close Guantánamo and to put an end to particularly harsh interrogation techniques previously used on terrorist suspects.
"We believe that the decision has great symbolic and practical significance, and could facilitate strengthening transatlantic counter-terrorism and security cooperation, based on the respect of international law and human rights," the statement reads.
(With agencies.)
