Top global issues, including Kashmir, proposed for Obama's agenda

WASHINGTON - Afghanistan, Kashmir, terrorism, the Middle East, nuclear weapons, global financial crisis, climate change and improving U.S. image abroad are among the issues that some eminent politicians, diplomats and experts say should be on top of President-elect Barack Obama's agenda.

Their views were sought by The Washington Post as Obama, who won Tuesday's election on the promise to change U.S. policies, prepares to take the nation's highest office on January 20.

Most agreed on one point: The Bush administration is leaving the United States and the world in a bad shape. Their opinions will appear in the Post's Sunday edition.

One of the sharpest and thought-provoking proposal for Obama's agenda came from Shashi Tharoor, a former U.N. under-secretary-general, whose aspirations to become the UN chief were frustrated by the United States. He was proposed for top UN post by the Indian government.

Tharoor said, "The most important challenge facing President-elect Barack Obama is to restore America's standing in the eyes of the world. He must reinvent the United States as a country that listens, engages with others and has 'a decent respect to the opinions of mankind.' To this end, the following prescription might help reverse the damage of the Bush years:

"Stop acting and sounding as if yours is the only way of seeing the world ('you're either with us or against us'), which makes all disagreement illegitimate or 'anti-American.' Don't define 'anti-Americanism' so broadly that you make every critic into an enemy. Recognize that foreigners approach global problems with a different set of assumptions and experiences -- and that they might have different priorities that Washington must learn to respect.