Abstract
In 2014, Michelle Bentley and Jack Holland published Obama’s Foreign Policy: Ending the War on Terror. The book provided an assessment of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy in the first term. The analysis concluded that in both rhetoric and practice, not much had changed between the last years of the Bush presidency and Obama’s early years.
This new volume provides an opportunity for a more exhaustive assessment of Obama’s foreign policy. The book is divided into three main sections: the Administration’s use and understanding of power, its language and rhetoric and the Administration’s approach to key global challenges. Confirming findings in the earlier volume, Nicholas Kitchen argues that Obama has been reticent ‘when it comes to the direct application of American military force’ (p. 21). Similarly, Adam Quinn suggests that while Obama has in certain areas (especially counter-terrorism) accommodated the preferences of the national security establishment (p. 34), he has shown greater awareness of the limits of American power and the costs of over-extension.
In the second section, on rhetoric and language, Michelle Bentley finds that only in the last few years of his presidency, Obama was able to enjoy ‘greater freedom to create distance from the foreign policy issues of the past’ and to at least partially abandon the ‘war on terror’ narrative (p. 63). Similarly, Ben Fermor argues that Obama has been able to bring changes in the key binary distinction civilisation/barbarism (p. 85). Jackson and Tsui, however, argue that only an external shock, coupled with an agent-determined action, would permit him to finally abandon the terror narrative completely (p. 79).
The section on challenges addresses Obama’s nuclear agenda (chapter 8), the legal architecture created by the Administration for the conduct of counter-terrorism (chapter 9), the difficulties encountered by the Administration in its relations with the post-Arab Spring Egyptian government (chapter 10) and the deteriorating relations with Russia (chapter 11). Oliver Turner’s chapter on China explores the Administration’s recognition of China’s rise and its move towards a policy of cautious engagement (p. 190). Quite fittingly, the final chapter goes back to issues of continuity and change between Bush and Obama and looks at the future of US foreign policy.
Much like the earlier volume, The Obama Doctrine provides a varied and detailed account of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy rhetoric and practice. Even more importantly, it provides an early assessment of key initiatives and policies undertaken during the Obama years.