July 3, 2007
By
Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 8:34am
, head of the military's regional Southern Command, which includes Gitmo in its ambit. The story is more focused on his approach in Latin America, but it also makes this point:
The smart power approach is more than just one admiral leading a small command with a new set of ideas, says Loren Thompson, an analyst who heads The Lexington Institute, another think tank in the Washington area. There is new recognition that an approach like Stavridis's can work elsewhere, including European Command, Pacific Command, and even, ultimately, Central Command, which oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"There is a sea change in the Bush administration," he says, "from ideologues who wanted to launch global crusades to more restrained and humble policymakers who try to work with the rest of the world on its own terms."
