Continued Critiques of Obama's Foreign Policy

Current Intelligence, a nifty new newsmag, has a critique of President Obama's foreign policy that also draws on, and links to, a variety of other articles.

So President Obama is the second coming of Kissinger. Who knew? Last month, Peter Baker of the New York Times wrote, “If there is an Obama doctrine emerging, it is one much more realpolitik than his predecessor’s, focused on relations with traditional great powers and relegating issues like human rights and democracy to second-tier concerns.”

Alright, so being more realpolitik than President George W. “Freedom Crusade” Bush doesn’t necessarily make one the next Henry Kissinger. But, the piece did provoke a debate, including an interesting spread in Foreignpolicy.com that exposed a wide range of interpretations of Obama’s administration.

For the neoconservatives, Obama is nothing more than a repackaged, weak, Wilsonian idealist. Daniell Pletka, for example, labeled Obama “an ideologue, a worshipper at the altar of American decline….[with a penchant to]… ignore the practical threats to the United States that exist in the real world. For Robert Kagan, Obama has thus far demonstrated “idealism on high order.”

Meanwhile, ForeignPolicy.com’s resident realist, Stephen Walt, labeled what he’s seen from the Obama administration thus far as “cold blooded” and “ruthlessly realistic.” This is a view that is increasingly shared by progressives who helped elect Obama and who see the increased U.S. military effort in Afghanistan as Obama’s Vietnam. All of which was enough to make Dan Drezner’s head spin – he titled his response “You say Idealist, I say Realist, let’s call the whole thing off.”

By: Brant