【英语国际】美国政坛争斗对各国意味着什么？

Global observers broadly concurred Wednesday that Republicans' midterm election gains would plunge President Barack Obama deep into a domestic political fracas -- a looming distraction that cheered China and parts of Israel, disheartened much of Asia and Russia and raised little response in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan.

The results contrasted starkly with the 2008 U.S. election that elevated the first African-American to the White House and was viewed from the U.K. and Germany to Africa as a watershed political moment.

Republicans' recapture of the House 'confirmed that Obama's election wasn't the deeply transformative moment in American politics that many Europeans hoped it would be,' said Thomas Klau of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Paris.

The question internationally was whether the prospect of fresh domestic battles would affect international U.S. initiatives.

Southeast Asia's main fear is that the Obama administration could be distracted from its efforts to position the U.S. as a counterweight to China's growing regional muscle. The U.S. has urged some countries to stand up to China's growing influence and suggested an international forum to resolve maritime conflicts with Southeast Asian nations and Japan.

Beijing hopes Republicans' domestic focus will take the wind out of those efforts. China generally favors Republican presidents over Democrats, who tend to focus more on human-rights issues. It considers the Obama administration more confront- ational than its predecessor, for whom foreign policy was dominated by Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Chinese foreign-policy makers and experts are also wary of growing concerns on both sides of the House aisle about how China plans to use its rapidly expanding economic and military power, and what effect that will have on U.S. interests.

Officials in Russia voiced fear that a Republican resurgence could threaten Mr. Obama's attempt to 'reset' relations. On Wednesday, the chairman of a key committee in the Russian parliament said it would withdraw its recommendation that the legislature ratify the U.S.-Russia treaty reducing nuclear weapons -- a major achievement of the so-called reset -- while it assesses the chances the U.S. Senate will ratify the treaty.

'If they can't do this in the lame-duck session in the next couple of weeks, the chances for ratification by the new Senate will be radically lower,' said Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the International Affairs Committee in the State Duma.

The U.S. results heartened some right-leaning Israelis, including settler leaders, who have seen President Obama's Mideast policy as antagonistic and now view his repudiation in the polls as a sign he may be less able to pressure Israel into concessions in stalled peace talks.

The vote merited little coverage and elicited little response in Afghanistan. It also barely registered among Iraqis, whose own politicians have wrangled for eight months over forming a new government amid a renewed campaign of deadly insurgent attacks. 'I as an Iraqi citizen don't care for the American elections as much as I [want] Iraqi politicians to form the government,' said Eman Abdul Razzaq, a 36-year-old housewife.

Africa advocates, meanwhile, lost a champion of human rights with Tuesday's ouster of Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold. As the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee on African affairs, the long-serving Democrat advocated a policy on Somalia that focused on resolving the conflict rather than just combating terrorism. He helped to pass legislation to develop a regional strategy to combat the Lord's Resistance Army, a murderous band of rebels that roams in northern Uganda and border areas.

'The biggest missing piece will be that steady drumbeat from Sen. Feingold, pushing the administration to keep the attention on these issues,' said Sam Bell, executive director of the U.S.-based Save Darfur Coalition and Genocide Intervention Network, a group of Sudan-focused civil-society groups.

In France, politicians and analysts shared a concern that Mr. Obama could be hampered in his capacity to make decisions on issues such as financial regulation and taxes, leading to a stalemate in Washington.

Some feared U.S. political paralysis would have international consequences at a time when most industrialized nations are limping out of recession and trying to coordinate policies. 'We can't afford to shift into reverse mode,' said Frederic Lefebvre, spokesman for Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, the party of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. 'France and Europe need the U.S. to move forward.'

United Pressphoto International美国的政治斗争或许会缓解中国政府面临的压力。
全球的观察人士周三大体上取得了一致意见，认为美国共和党在中期选举中获胜将使奥巴马(Barack Obama)总统深陷国内政治矛盾──这一隐现的干扰因素令中国和以色列部分人欢欣鼓舞，挫伤了亚洲大部分地区和俄罗斯的信心，而战火纷飞的伊拉克和阿富汗对此的反应却是十分有限。

这样的结果与2008年美国总统大选时的情形构成了鲜明对比，当时选举出了第一位入主白宫的非裔美国人，被英国、德国和非洲等地看作是一个具有分水岭意义的政治时刻。

位于巴黎的欧洲对外关系委员会(European Council on Foreign Relations)的克劳(Thomas Klau)说，共和党重新获得对众议院的控制权证明，奥巴马的当选并没有像许多欧洲人希望的那样成为美国政坛上具有重大转型意义的时刻。

AFP/Getty Images星期三，俄罗斯士兵穿着仿制的二战军装准备一场将在莫斯科红场举行的阅兵式。从国际上看问题在于这场新的国内斗争的前景是否会影响到美国在国际问题上的举措。

东南亚主要担心奥巴马政府将美国作为对中国在该地区日益增强影响力的制衡所付出的努力将被削弱。美国已敦促一些国家应对中国不断增强的影响力，并建议组织一个国际性论坛来解决与东南亚国家及日本的海上争端。

北京方面希望共和党以国内为重点的策略将使他们减少这些努力。相比起民主党人，中国通常更喜欢共和党人，民主党人往往更加关注人权问题。中国认为奥巴马政府较前任更具对抗性，上届政府的外交政策以伊拉克和阿富汗为主导。

不过中国的外交政策制定者和专家们也密切关注着众议院两党都在不断加重的担忧，他们担心中国将打算如何利用其迅速增长的经济和军事实力，以及这将对美国利益产生何种影响。

俄罗斯官员表达的担忧则在于共和党重新掌权将威胁到奥巴马“重置”对俄关系的努力。俄罗斯议会一个重要委员会的主席周三说，该委员会将不再建议议会批准美俄有关削减核武器的条约（所谓关系“重置”的一项主要成就），因为它评估了美国参议院通过此条约的可能性。

俄罗斯国家杜马国际事务委员会主席科萨切夫(Konstantin Kosachev)说，如果美国参议院不能在未来几周议会任期结束前通过这一条约，那么新一届参议院通过该条约的可能性将会大大降低。

美国中期选举的结果鼓舞了一些右倾的以色列人，包括犹太人定居点的领导者，他们曾认为奥巴马总统的中东政策具有对抗性，如今则将他在选举中的失利视为一种迹象，表明他施压以色列在陷入僵局的和谈中作出让步的能力可能不如以往了。

在阿富汗，有关此次选举的报道很少，它所引发的反应也十分有限。它在伊拉克也几乎未能引起关注，那里的政界人士为组建新政府的问题已经争吵了8个月了，而且最近叛乱分子又发动了新一轮的致命袭击。36岁的主妇艾曼(Eman Abdul Razzaq)说，我是一个伊拉克人，与关心美国选举相比，我更希望伊拉克的政治家们能组成一个政府。

与此同时，随着威斯康辛州参议员费因格得(Russ Feingold)周二的落选，非洲问题的倡议者们也失去了一位人权斗士。身为参议院非洲事务外交关系委员会的主席，这位任职多年的民主党员提倡在索马里实行一种重点关注解决冲突而不是仅仅打击恐怖主义的政策。在他的帮助下通过了立法，制定了旨在打击“圣主抵抗军”的地区策略，这是一支活跃在乌干达北部和边境地区、由叛乱人员组成的暴力团体。

总部设在美国的拯救达尔富尔联盟和干预种族屠杀组织(Save Darfur Coalition and Genocide Intervention Network)的执行董事贝尔(Sam Bell)说，最大的损失将是失去了参议员费因格得那种时而响起的敲打，这种敲打提醒政府时刻关注这些问题。该组织由数家关注苏丹的民间团体组成。

在法国，政界人士和分析师共同担心的是奥巴马在某些问题上的决策能力将受到限制，比如金融监管和税收，从而令华盛顿出现止步不前的局面。

有人担心，正当多数工业化国家步履蹒跚地走出衰退、尽力协调政策之时，美国的政治“瘫痪”将在国际范围内产生影响。法国总统萨科齐所在政党人民运动联盟的发言人拉夫布维(Frederic Lefebvre)说，我们无法承受倒退，法国和欧洲需要美国向前迈进。

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