Christiane Amanpour on international reaction to U.S. Elections

Christiane Amanpour

Chat Moderator: Welcome to the CNN chat room, Christiane Amanpour.

Christiane Amanpour: Thank you very much! It's good to be with you on this day of important change!

Chat Moderator: Are most international leaders comfortable with the idea of George W. Bush as leader of the free world?

Christiane Amanpour: That is an extremely good question. Most international leaders know that they must work with the United States president, whoever he is. However, there is a certain amount of concern about the direction of a Bush administration in terms of foreign policy and whether a Bush administration would be as engaged and as interested and as willing to show U.S. leadership on the global stage as the Clinton administration has been.

Observers here are concerned about George W. Bush's professed lack of interest, lack of knowledge, and even lack of travel, when it comes to the rest of the world. However, in the final analysis, they believe that the burden of leadership and the realities of actually being in office will shape foreign policy in much the same way as the Clinton administration.

Question from tennoheika: How is the Middle East reacting to Bush?

Christiane Amanpour: It's clear that the United States will always play a key role when it comes to bringing peace to the Middle East. There is no other country that is as trusted by both sides as the United States. To be frank, with the possibility of a change of administration in Israel, it's not clear at this precise moment what the reaction is to a Bush presidency. On the Palestinian side, most will tell you publicly that it makes no difference who is president of the United States, because ALL U.S. presidents are biased toward Israel. However, in private, senior Palestinians know that they received an unprecedented amount of recognition and support from the Clinton administration, and they too now watch and wait to see how a new administration engages with them.

Question from Pocketkings: Does the European community view the events of the past few weeks in a serious light? Or are they laughing and shaking their heads?

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Christiane Amanpour: A bit of both. Serious because whoever is president of the United States - and how he becomes president - is of vital importance, not just to the United States, but to the rest of the world. Today, in many mainstream newspapers throughout Europe, both left-leaning and conservative newspapers, there are many, many questions as to the legitimacy of a Bush presidency. They say he was chosen by the Supreme Court justices, not by a majority of the American people. This is the view of many newspapers and segments of public opinion in Europe. However, people here also say that once the new administration begins the job of governing, questions of legitimacy will fade away and professional working relationships will ensue between the Bush administration and world leaders.

Question from TribeLeader: What does Bush need to do to build respect from the international community?

Christiane Amanpour: When we ask people that, they say he needs to show a genuine interest in world affairs and needs to start reaching out to various world leaders. Remember that eight years ago, President Clinton was similarly inexperienced in the business of foreign policy, but eight years on, he's considered one of the most engaged and committed U.S. presidents on the international scene.

Question from Will: Do you think we can expect some of the terrorist factions to test the new administration?

Christiane Amanpour: That's hard to predict. There are analysts that believe that some countries who are nominally enemies of the U.S., for instance, Iraq, that might be tempted to test the will of the next President. But analysts believe that the United States, when it comes to external threats, has always shown a powerful response.

Chat Moderator: Many countries have some type of parliamentary system or proportional representation. What comments did you hear about the U.S. election process compared with these countries?

Christiane Amanpour: I heard many, many comments from many parts of the world. Most people were somewhat indignant, saying that for all these years, the United States has dictated to us how we run our elections, and now they're having problems with their electoral process. I heard a lot of people say that, from Africa, to the Middle East, to Europe. In England, many people wondered why the Americans or the state of Florida didn't just have everyone fill in a ballot by pencil, then have them all hand-counted.

But at the end of the day, most people I talked to believed it would be resolved through the courts, through the legal process, without any serious damage to the US infrastructure. Having said that, in parts of Europe, in England and other parts, there is some shock being expressed that the highest court in the land appeared to intervene for the first time ever in a presidential election in a partisan way. That's how it was viewed here.

Chat Moderator: Thank you for joining us today, Christiane Amanpour.

Christiane Amanpour: Thank you very much indeed. These will be interesting years ahead.

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