Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been in Asia this past week on a "global listening tour". She has been engaging not only world leaders, but the people themselves.
Like in Indonesia -- the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world -- where she appeared on some popular radio and TV shows and toured poorer neighborhoods, receiving a warm welcome.
Part of the warmth that the Indonesians feel for her might be in part because of the fact that her boss, President Obama, spent part of his youth in Indonesia. But you cannot deny that her friendly and engaging manner has got to be appreciated for its stark contrast to the cowboy-style foreign policy of the previous administration.
The Bush administration's foreign policy was defined by words like "axis of evil" and "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists."
On the other hand, the Obama administration's foreign policy is taking shape through words like "The United States wants to listen" and "I believe strongly that we learn from listening to one another."
We've gone from a policy of aggression, finger pointing, and fear mongering to a policy of warmth, listening, and learning.
This is exactly what is needed to heal our wounded relationship with the rest of the world.
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