Reassessing Obama’s Legacy of Restraint
Paul Miller
March 6, 2017
President Barack Obama delivers an address to the nation on immigration, from the East Room of the White House, Nov. 20, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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The first draft of history has been kind to President Barack Obama’s foreign policy legacy. A year ago, Gideon Rose of Foreign Affairs wrote that Obama “will likely pass on to his successor an overall foreign policy agenda and national power position in better shape than when he entered office.” He praised Obama for “pulling back from misguided adventures…in the global periphery.” Derek Chollet, who served in the Obama administration for six years, went further. He praised Obama for seeking to change not just a few major policies, but the entire worldview of the foreign policy establishment:
For Obama, the mentality that led to Iraq was the most prominent example of a systemic breakdown—the result of a distinct mindset that had dominated U.S. foreign policy for too long.
In place of the black-and-white establishment view that the United States must always do something, Obama played a “long game” in which patience, balance, restraint, and pragmatism counted as much as the establishment’s fetishes, strength and credibility.
https://warontherocks.com/2017/03/reassessing-obamas-legacy-of-restraint/
