WELL, W WAS AN INTERNATIONALIST, THE UR AN ISOLATIONIST:

Without White House muscle, treaties left in limbo (John B. Bellinger III, June 11, 2010, Washington Post)

Despite the presence of 59 Democrats, the Senate has approved only one treaty (a tax agreement with France) during the 112th Congress. The Obama administration must make more vigorous efforts with respect to the many important treaties awaiting Senate approval.

Although the Bush administration was criticized for its alleged lack of respect for international law, it had a particularly good record on seeking and obtaining treaty approvals. It secured Senate advice and consent for 163 treaties from 2001 to 2009. These included 20 treaties during the administration's first two years and a record 90 treaties during its last two years -- more treaties approved by the Senate than during any single previous Congress in U.S. history.

Treaties approved by the Senate during the Bush years included more than a hundred bilateral agreements on such diverse subjects as the protection of polar bears in the Arctic and the return of stolen automobiles from Honduras. There were more than two dozen multilateral conventions on human rights, environmental and marine protection, arms control, nuclear proliferation, cybercrime and sports anti-doping rules. And senior Bush officials testified in favor of treaties restricting the involvement of children in armed conflicts, protecting the ozone layer and creating a marine preserve in the Caribbean.

I testified in support of five treaties on the law of war that had languished before the Senate for years, including agreements prohibiting the use of incendiary weapons (such as napalm) and blinding lasers, attacks on cultural property in wartime and pacts requiring the cleanup of unexploded ordnance after a war. The Senate approved all five in September 2008.