FAILING IN A COMPLEX AND DANGEROUS WORLD

While President Clinton has been under siege these past few months about activities relating to savings and loans and land development companies in Arkansas, he has also found himself barraged by questions about his ability to lead the United States in a complex and dangerous world.

Not that we mean to diminish the seriousness of the imbroglio that is Whitewater. But the Clinton administration's on-going international missteps threaten the security of the United States in a way that Whitewater improprieties do not.

The Clinton foreign policy has been a shambles, starting (and continuing) with the president's unending flip-flops on both Haiti and Bosnia. The one foreign policy success -- outside of NAFTA -- that the president pointed to after his first year in office was support of Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Today, that policy looks more problematic than helpful. Moreover, the Clinton administration's promise of aid to Russia -- which never made it there -- only exacerbated growing anti-Westernism in the former Soviet Union, undercutting the very goals of the Yeltsin-centered policy.

Russia remains a country in turmoil, and its problems will be solved -- if they are to be solved -- domestically rather than through any international assistance. This does not mean that the United States does not have a role to play. It does, foremost, in working to ensure a peaceful and stable international landscape. Unfortunately, United States policy seems to be helping to create the exact opposite: a world of conflict and instability.

China and North Korea top the list of danger zones now.

Regarding North Korea, the Clinton administration has for the past year vacillated between serving up tough talk and tempting carrots. In the meantime, Pyongyang has flaunted all the United Nations arms treaties it has signed and proceeded to begin building a nuclear arsenal.

This week the United States began the first shipment of Patriot missiles to South Korea, at the same time announcing the resumption of joint operating maneuvers there. But a military confrontation is the last thing the United States wants. Not only does North Korea's army dwarf the size of South Korea's, but now we have to be concerned about nuclear weapons.

President Clinton's problem is that the two countries who should be most helpful in resolving the quandary on the Korean peninsula are not all that pleased to be partners with the United States right now. Japan is still upset at Mr. Clinton's continuing brinkmanship about trade issues, and China just finished publicly humiliating Warren Christopher, the president's secretary of state, for being an agent of shoddy diplomacy.

China should be reprimanded for its human rights abuses, but so far the Clinton administration has ended up hurting itself more than Beijing with its imprudent grandstanding. This grandstanding could turn out to be deadly for our allies in South Korea and elsewhere if we do not focus more on developing a coherent and consistent foreign policy.

There has been much conjecture among foreign policy experts why the Clinton administration is so prone to international mistakes. One theory is that the president is not engaged in foreign affairs, or that his world-view is hamstrung by coming to age in the sixties. Another theory is that he has not assembled a competent team. Still another is that any president would have the same problems in today's post-Cold War world.

This week's Newsweek magazine took Mr. Clinton to task because of his continuing foreign policy struggle. They write:

"Sooner or later Clinton, like every U.S. president, will have to face an uneasy truth. The constituency of the man in the White House extends beyond those who are qualified by nationality to vote for him. He holds in his hands the safety of millions who are not Americans. No other nation combines economic and military strength in such abundance; no other nation aspires to the kind of moral authority that can justify what would otherwise be the use of raw power. Not all Americans realize this. But many foreigners do....If Clinton can't accept that, he should not have sought the job he now holds."

The people of the world depend upon an America that can speak competently to world affairs. For the past year, our leadership has been failing.