Atlantic: President Obama's Foreign Policy Doctrine

[zoogs]

The Atlantic: President Obama's Foreign Policy Doctrine

This is the really long retrospective from President Obama's perspective. (Video interview w/ the author; highlights for those not inclined to read!)

These he accomplished despite his growing sense that larger forcesthe riptide of tribal feeling in a world that should have already shed its atavism; the resilience of small men who rule large countries in ways contrary to their own best interests; the persistence of fear as a governing human emotionfrequently conspire against the best of Americas intentions. But he also has come to learn, he told me, that very little is accomplished in international affairs without U.S. leadership.

...

“For all of our warts, the United States has clearly been a force for good in the world,” he said. “If you compare us to previous superpowers, we act less on the basis of naked self-interest, and have been interested in establishing norms that benefit everyone. If it is possible to do good at a bearable cost, to save lives, we will do it.”

Good read.

And a couple of response pieces, also from The Atlantic:

The Atlantic: Obama is not a realist

The Atlantic: The disappointment of Barack Obama

The Atlantic: What did Russia think of the 'red line'?

 

[BigRedBuster]

I agree with this.

“For all of our warts, the United States has clearly been a force for good in the world,” he said. “If you compare us to previous superpowers, we act less on the basis of naked self-interest, and have been interested in establishing norms that benefit everyone. If it is possible to do good at a bearable cost, to save lives, we will do it.”

Which causes me to bang my head when I see or hear people claim that we are an imperialistic nation only out to seek our own self interests while being lead down that path by a few wealthy people only wanting to get richer.

 

[84HuskerLaw]

I agree with this.

“For all of our warts, the United States has clearly been a force for good in the world,” he said. “If you compare us to previous superpowers, we act less on the basis of naked self-interest, and have been interested in establishing norms that benefit everyone. If it is possible to do good at a bearable cost, to save lives, we will do it.”

Which causes me to bang my head when I see or hear people claim that we are an imperialistic nation only out to seek our own self interests while being lead down that path by a few wealthy people only wanting to get richer.

Sadly Obama has aided and abetted the enemy and set back the cause of peace and human rights in the uncivilzed world by generations. The previous 40 years of US diplomacy and military and economic efforts to promote freedom, democratic ideas, education, human rights, civil and social justice, safety and security, etc. are all either destroyed or in grave jeopardy after the past 7.3 years. Obama and Hillary as his chief co-conspirator and archetecht of foreign policy and interventionism has created themost unstable, dangerous and uncivilized Islamic world in the past 1000 years. Literally millions and millions of refugees fleeing to Europe and anywhere else they can manage to escape to in the past 5 years. Hundreds of thousands of civilians dead, butchered, slaughtered, etc. All because Obama is sympathehic to the Iranians, the radical Iraqis, the ISIS and AlQueda types, etc. The governments of Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, and the list can go on, have been turned upside down and leadership replaced with terrorists and thugs and violence (basically civil wars in many or even most islamic nations). The news networkds of course are banished and or unsafe in most of these places so very little is reported. But it is absolutely disgusting and horrible to see so much of the American and western nations' work product for decades from Reagan through Bush, B Clinton, and Bush II, all wasted.

 

[zoogs]

Ah, the 'good work' of Bush II's administration...

There's some good passages in there articulating the disagreements Obama had with the more hawkish sides of his cabinet (including Kerry and Clinton), as well as his admiration for one of the elder Bush's foreign policy advisors (Brent Scowcroft, his NSA and who penned an op-ed in support of the Iran Deal). On Reagan he had both criticism (Iran Contra) and praise (diplomacy with Gorbachev).

I think we'll miss having someone with the temperament and judiciousness of Obama in the chair. Time will tell if either Party can produce a similar candidate in this cycle.

 

[zoogs]

Added another one of the review pieces as well as a video interview with the author to the OP.

 

[zoogs]

The pro-Saudi sentiment in a few of the impassioned Atlantic rebuttals struck me as odd. Max Fisher at Vox has a rebuttal in this piece.

I don't know what to make of this debate. I remember *always* having the impression -- back ten years or more -- that the Saudis were regarded by Americans as unsavory, odd allies. Like so:

The moment was just the latest manifestation of something strange about Washington's foreign policy community: It is deeply, viscerally committed to defending and advocating for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a country whose authoritarian government, ultra-conservative values, and extremist-promoting foreign policy would seem like an unusual passion project for American foreign policy professionals.

 

[TGHusker]

I agree with this.

“For all of our warts, the United States has clearly been a force for good in the world,” he said. “If you compare us to previous superpowers, we act less on the basis of naked self-interest, and have been interested in establishing norms that benefit everyone. If it is possible to do good at a bearable cost, to save lives, we will do it.”

Which causes me to bang my head when I see or hear people claim that we are an imperialistic nation only out to seek our own self interests while being lead down that path by a few wealthy people only wanting to get richer.

BRB I thought you needed a few of these:

:bang It will help you feel better. You can thank me later.

And one more for my agreement

 

[BigRedBuster]

I agree with this.

“For all of our warts, the United States has clearly been a force for good in the world,” he said. “If you compare us to previous superpowers, we act less on the basis of naked self-interest, and have been interested in establishing norms that benefit everyone. If it is possible to do good at a bearable cost, to save lives, we will do it.”

Which causes me to bang my head when I see or hear people claim that we are an imperialistic nation only out to seek our own self interests while being lead down that path by a few wealthy people only wanting to get richer.

BRB I thought you needed a few of these:

:bang It will help you feel better. You can thank me later.

And one more for my agreement

Thanks....

It's more fun though to have a headache from a hangover.

 

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Ah, the 'good work' of Bush II's administration...

There's some good passages in there articulating the disagreements Obama had with the more hawkish sides of his cabinet (including Kerry and Clinton), as well as his admiration for one of the elder Bush's foreign policy advisors (Brent Scowcroft, his NSA and who penned an op-ed in support of the Iran Deal). On Reagan he had both criticism (Iran Contra) and praise (diplomacy with Gorbachev).

I think we'll miss having someone with the temperament and judiciousness of Obama in the chair. Time will tell if either Party can produce a similar candidate in this cycle.

That's what I'm going to miss most about Obama. He has time and time and time again tried to work with everyone in Congress and has constantly tried to appeal to the peoples' best interests. It's a shame the people he's had to work with can't take a single breath without saying "block, weak, dictator, etc..." The United States has achieved with Barack Obama as President, and a lot of that has come from his willingness to see the good and bad in a person or a policy.