| President Obama, one Year on
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3
"At the first anniversary of Obama's Inauguration, The 'American Interest' takes stock and looks ahead. Essays by Francis Fukuyama, Walter Russell Mead, Niall Ferguson, Josef Joffe, Anne Applebaum, and more:
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FDR, LBJ or Jimmy Carter?
Fukuyama, Francis
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"There are three Democratic predecessors in whose footsteps Barack Obama could follow: Jimmy Carter, who was seen as a failure in both domestic and foreign policy; Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded at home but failed abroad; and Franklin Roosevelt, who achieved great things on both fronts. If Obama gets a reasonable health care reform bill through Congress, which I think is likely to happen, he gets to be at least Lyndon Johnson. Whether he moves beyond that point to something greater will depend on how he uses his legacy on the home front to deal with the foreign policy challenges he is facing."
Francis Fukuyama is professor of international political economy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and chairman of the AI editorial board.
- Solid and Promising
Tuchman Mathews, Jessica
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"It is axiomatic that successful Presidents must focus their political capital on just a few priorities. Barack Obama has had no such luxury. Just on the international front, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the deepening Israeli-Palestinian conflict, near-term deadlines requiring policy reversals on nuclear proliferation and climate change, a broken relationship with Russia, and a global financial crisis with an unprecedented need for broad international cooperation, all demanded immediate, presidential-level attention. No president since Harry Truman has inherited as tough an international inbox."
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
- Consider Lincoln
Mead, Walter Russell
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"Mr. President, your critics aren’t wrong; your presidency isn’t going well, and things will probably get worse before they get better. You have some tough weeks and months ahead. But don’t feel too bad about this: Crisis is what presidencies are made of. Consider Lincoln."
Walter Russell Mead is the Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations
- The Open Hand, Slapped
Perle, Richard
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"Obama would certainly enjoy public support for more robust policies. Opinion surveys show that the American people are uncomfortable with his dithering and his incessant apologizing, and growing weary of the high ratio of talk to action. The Nobel Peace Prize highlighted the paucity of results from Obama’s first year, causing many to reflect on what he has actually accomplished."
Richard Perle is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and served as Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration (1981–87).
- A Lack of Leadership
Steel, Ronald
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"Barack Obama is an intelligent and eloquent man. He inspires. But he does not lead. Although elected by a post-Cold War coalition, he has failed to engage it in a post-Cold War foreign policy, or even to outline what such a foreign policy should be. What he has so far offered is Bush-Rumsfeld re-warmed, without the macho posturing hiding the quiet post-9/11 panic."
Ronald Steel is professor emeritus of international relations at the University of Southern California.
- Good Start, Long Road
Nye, Joseph S.
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"Through a series of symbolic gestures and speeches (Prague, Cairo, Accra, the United Nations and others), Obama worked wonders in restoring American soft, or attractive, power in his first year of office. As a recent Pew poll reported, “in many countries opinions of the United States are now as positive as they were at the beginning of the decade before George W. Bush took office.” As an Australian commentator summarized, “it helps a country’s public image when its head of state is widely liked rather than widely disliked."
Joseph S. Nye is University Distinguished Service professor at Harvard.
- The Perils of Wishful Thinking
Kagan, Robert
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"The fundamental assumption is that the great powers today share common interests. Relations among them, therefore, “must no longer be seen as a zero-sum game”, as President Obama argued in July 2009. The Obama Doctrine is about “Win-Win” and “getting to Yes.” The new “mission” of the United States, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is to be the great convener of nations, gathering the powers to further common interests and seek common solutions to the world’s problems."
Robert Kagan is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
- The Right Grand Strategy
Ikenberry, John
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"The question to ask is: Has the Obama team articulated a grand strategy that is responsive to these looming global problems? In a world where the threats and challenges are so diffuse and deeply entrenched, the United States needs a grand strategy of global order-building that puts in place frameworks for sustained partnership and collective action on many fronts. The good news is that the Obama Administration seems to be animated by precisely this vision."
G. John Ikenberry is Albert G. Milbank professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and Global Eminence scholar at Kyung Hee University, Korea.
- Who is this Guy?
Joffe, Josef
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"We used to have a fairly good sense early on where on these axes past Presidents were situated, give or take a few feet. But we don’t know where Barack Obama is. Is he an internationalist? Yes, he likes multilateralism and cooperation. But he is also a nationalist in the sense that he spends most of his energy in and on America: with health care and cultural politics like gay rights."
Publisher-editor of Die Zeit, Josef Joffe is a founding board member of The American Interest and senior fellow of the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies as well as Abramowitz Fellow of the Hoover Institution, both at Stanford.
- Policy Isn't Just Analysis
Gelb, Leslie H.
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"Obama has also cleared the international air of a lot of anti-Americanism. His speeches demonstrated an awareness of foreign problems and perspectives. The speeches have convinced people around the world that Washington is not totally out of touch with post-Cold War realities. His words have prepared the ground for the subsequent application of real American power. The problem is that the power shoe still hasn’t dropped."
Leslie H. Gelb is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former senior State and Defense Department official, as well as a columnist for the New York Times.
- A Mixed Picture
Galston, William A.
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"While the President remains personally popular, public opinion surveys point to declining support for many of his policies. And the people are signaling their disappointment with some of his key strategic choices. His decision to pursue comprehensive healthcare reform along with an economic rescue and recovery program has contributed to rising public concerns about spending and the budget deficit, and to the growing perception that he is trying to do too much. As Obama took office, 70 percent of Americans saw him as possessing “strong leadership qualities”, and 63 percent rated him as “firm and decisive."
William A. Galston is an AI board member and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he holds the Ezra Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies.
- Mistaken Assumptions
Barone, Michael
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"Barack Obama has based his policies as President on two assumptions. One year after his election both assumptions appear to have been mistaken. His domestic policies have been based on the assumption that economic distress would produce an increased demand for, or at least acceptance of, big government policies."
Michael Barone is senior political analyst at the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and co-author of The Almanac of American Politics.
- Not Much Change
Applebaum, Anne
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"Like almost everybody else, I’ve spent much of the past year criticizing Barack Obama, second-guessing many of his decisions, finding fault with the incompetence of some of his appointees. Perhaps it sounds peculiar, then, but when I look back on the year as a whole, I find that I am nevertheless still inclined to withhold judgment."
Anne Applebaum, an AI board member, is a columnist for the Washington Post and Slate.
- Big Bite, Tough Chew
Marshall, Will
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"How to grade President Obama’s first year in office? As Zhou Enlai replied when asked his opinion of the French Revolution, “It’s too soon to say.” Obama has set in motion a host of bold reforms that could break some of America’s deepest political impasses, or cause massive disillusionment if they fail. The big question now is whether his tenacity matches his audacity."
Will Marshall is president of the Progressive Policy Institute.
- No Breakthrough
Clemons, Steve
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"Obama’s presidency thus started in a deep hole, much deeper than faced by any U.S. presidency in modern times. Against that backdrop, Obama’s performance deserves applause for doing what needed to be done to avert global depression and for not tripping into any “new” back-breaking military deployments beyond those currently under way. But avoiding worse problems does not equal getting America back on a track where its power and global leverage are restored and where the United States is again the lead force in shaping the international system. On this front, Barack Obama and his team have generated mixed, often disappointing results."
Steve Clemons directs the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation.
- Three More Years
Krasner, Stephen D.
American Interest, January/February 2010, v5, #3, online edition
"The success of Barack Obama’s presidency will depend on his domestic accomplishments: health care, financial reform and the overall state of the economy. His presidency could be wrecked by foreign policy developments; it cannot be redeemed by them. The five big foreign policy challenges that the Administration confronts—North Korea, Iran, Middle East peace, Af-Pak and Iraq—offer no opportunities for big wins, but there could be big losses. It is not clear, one year on, that the President sees things this way, but eventually he will, because that is all reality will offer."
Stephen D. Krasner, an AI board member, is Graham H. Stuart professor at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and the Hoover Institution. He served as director of Policy Planning in the State Department from 2005–07.
C4/01-10. Posted January 29, 2010
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