The last few years have featured a lot of talk about Bush's "Wilsonian" foreign policy. Indeed, John Ikenberry, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Thomask Knock, and Tony Smith have just written a new book
on the subject. But what we really need is for Bush to engage in a bit more Wilsonian thinking in transition policy, as John Milton Cooper Jr. explains in today's Times:The precarious state of relations with the nations at war in Europe, particularly Germany, made Wilson fear for national security in the event of an interregnum — which then, before the ratification of the 20th Amendment in 1933, lasted more than a month longer than it does today. A former professor of political science who had studied and admired parliamentary systems, Wilson decided upon a drastic plan to shorten this uneasy period.Two days before the election he had a sealed letter, which he had typed himself, hand-delivered to the secretary of state, who was then third in line of succession to the presidency. Wilson wrote that if he lost he would immediately appoint his Republican opponent, Charles Evans Hughes, secretary of state, and then he and his vice president would resign, making Hughes president at once. Wilson said he was proposing this plan because those were not “ordinary times” and “no such critical circumstances in regard to our foreign policy have ever existed before.”
Seems like a sensible plan, particularly given the current economic turmoil. As it is, Obama has been doing a good job using a slow series of transition announcements to project an image of steadying leadership. But the fact that Bush is impotent in the face of a Democratic Congress and Obama is powerless until late-January is actually a problem.
