Hints of spring in world affairs?

IF THE policies that froze us during the last four years be dark winter, is there now a hint of thaw in foreign affairs?

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Pessimists say that President Bush's recent European tour failed to heal the rifts with Europe -- that issues such as climate change, an international court, arms to China, and a unified approach to Iran still divide rather than unite, but who can deny that Bush went out of his way to be conciliatory or that European leaders did not respond accordingly? That Bush would even consider modifying his stance on Iran is a sign that working with once disrespected allies may be creeping back onto the American agenda.

The unilateralist thumpings of the last four years are but a distant drum, and the famous pronouncement that, after not being supported on Iraq, the United States would forgive Russia, ignore Germany, and punish France seems forgotten now that the United States needs allies again. The new deal was summed up in a cartoon that showed Condoleezza Rice saying to the Russians, the Germans, and the French that the president had forgiven them for being right about Iraq.

President Bush admonished Vladimir Putin for democracy's retreat in Russia but not to the point of harming a very necessary relationship in the war against Islamic extremists.

It is to be hoped that Europe will step in and build on the more multilateral approach that is being offered and be of more help in trying to stabilize Iraq's future. The Iraq war may have been a giant mistake, but America has in the past been helpful trying to clean up Europe's mistakes.

The new hope in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute has been enhanced by two recent events: First, Israel has abandoned its practice of blowing up the houses of suicide bombers. This tradition of collective punishment put families out on the street who may not have even known that their offspring were planning suicide bombings. And land ownership is so complicated in the occupied territories that the Israelis often ended up blowing up houses that belonged to people not at all involved with terrorism.

Second, as of this writing, the Israelis have not over-reacted to the first attempt to derail the new cease-fire: the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. In the bad old days, Israeli planes and tanks would have taken three eyes and three teeth for every one lost. The Palestinian authorities don't have the ability to stop every outrage, but if Mahmoud Abbas does his best to halt terror attacks and Israel cuts him some slack, there is hope that this won't degenerate into the tit-for-tat murder that marked the last four years.

In neighboring Lebanon an outbreak of people power has forced the pro-Syrian government to resign -- which may lead, finally, to the end of the Syrian occupation of that country, which has lasted close to 30 years.

True, the Syrians came into Lebanon with the blessings of most Arabs to quell the civil war, but they have long since outstayed their welcome.

In truth, the Syrians have been gradually withdrawing and reducing their forces in Lebanon since 2000, but the demonstrations following the murder of former prime minister Rafik Hariri may provide the needed extra shove to make Lebanon free.

There is some good news coming out of Egypt as well with Hosni Mubarak asking his Parliament to amend the Constitution to allow multiparty presidential elections for the first time. Many Egyptians have long called for a loosening up of Egypt's infracted electoral system.

People will argue over how much the recent elections in Iraq, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, or even the ''orange revolution" in Ukraine have helped break up the ice-bound status quo and over how much the Bush administration's promotion of democracy has helped. But the State Department's recent statement -- ''We strongly advocate in all countries guarantees of civil and political rights, including freedom of speech, the press and the right of all citizens to participate fully in political life and to choose their own leaders" -- struck me as setting just the right tone.

Democracy is like motherhood: well worth supporting. But democracy, like motherhood, should not arrive in the Middle East as a result of an armed invasion and soldiers breaking down the door in the middle of the night, Fallujah-style.

H.D.S. Greenway's column appears regularly in the Globe.