Obama and the power of image

It was last week when newspapers all over the world talked about a new success in Obama's career in his role of the president of the most powerful country in the world.

The Security Council affirmed its commitment to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and established a broad framework for reducing global nuclear dangers, in an historic summit-level meeting chaired by United States President Barack Obama.

The meeting – only the fifth in the Council’s history to be held at the level of heads of State and government – held on 24 September began with the unanimous adoption of a resolution by which the 15-member body voiced grave concern about the threat of nuclear proliferation and the need for global action to combat it.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the resolution, adding that the summit was “an historic event that has opened a new chapter in the Council’s efforts to address nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.”

Stressing that “nuclear disarmament is the only sane path to a safer world,” Mr. Ban said in his opening remarks that “nothing would work better in eliminating the risk of use than eliminating the weapons themselves.”

In resolution 1887, the Council called on countries to sign and ratify the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and created additional deterrence for withdrawal from the treaty.

“Although we averted a nuclear nightmare during the Cold War, we now face proliferation of a scope and complexity that demands new strategies and new approaches,” said Mr. Obama, the first US President to preside over a Security Council meeting.

“Just one nuclear weapon exploded in a city – be it New York or Moscow, Tokyo or Beijing, London or Paris – could kill hundreds of thousands of people. And it would badly destabilize our security, our economies, and our very way of life.”

That was another victory for Obama and his team in front of the world. Therefore, Barack had to face another summit, now in Copenhagen, for another personal goal: the Olympic Games in Chicago 2016,


Combining hometown pride and political muscle, President Barack Obama lobbied Olympic leaders on Friday to give the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago, saying a nation shaped by the people of the world "wants a chance to inspire it once more."

The president and his wife, fellow Chicagoan Michelle Obama, put their capital behind an enormous campaign to win the Olympics bid. Never before had a U.S. president made such an in-person appeal. "I urge you to choose Chicago," Obama told members of the International Olympic Committee, many of whom he later mingled with as some snapped photos of him on their cell phones. "And if you do – if we walk this path together – then I promise you this: The city of Chicago and the United States of America will make the world proud," the president said.

Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo have been making their cases to the IOC for more than a year, but many IOC members were believed to be undecided about which city they would vote for Friday.By the time the winning bid is announced, the Obamas should be back on a plane to Washington.

Mrs. Obama gave a passionate account of what the games would mean to her father, who taught her as a girl how to throw punches better than the boys. She spoke fondly of growing up on the South Side of Chicago, sitting on her father's lap and cheering on Olympic athletes. She noted that her late father had multiple sclerosis, so she knows something about athletes who compete against tough odds.

The president anchored the U.S. charm offensive.
He referenced his own election as a moment when people from around the world gathered in Chicago to see the results last November and celebrate that "our diversity could be a source of strength."

After the Obamas' comments, the U.S. delegation fielded questions from committee members, and at one point the president jumped in to answer. He said he envisioned that the Chicago games would allow the United States to restore its image as a place that, at its best, is "open to the world."



Though IOC President Jacques Rogge has said heads of state aren't required to attend the IOC meeting, recent votes indicate their presence can make a difference.

During the 2005 IOC meeting in Singapore, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair successfully lobbied members on behalf of London's bid for the 2012 Summer Games. Two years later, Vladimir Putin, then president of Russia, helped secure the 2014 Winter Games for Sochi on Russia's Black Sea coast.

But in the end it was another YES, WE CAN! from another country in the world: Brazil, which got their goal: to hold the next Olympic Games 2016, Rio de Janeiro and president Lula, and that teach us the idea that not only image and political power win, there is something else, as conviction, struggle and desire.
Congratulations Rio! It's good news for the weaker countries in the world and will help Brazil to develop in the following years.