Elizabeth Alans Bendeck

A01610698
Perspectiva Internacional
31/08/16

Barack Obamas Foreign Policy

How do elements of the different International Relations theories reflect on
Barak Obamas foreign policy with regards to Iraq, Libya, and Russia?

The history of the United Stated changed forever on the 20 th of January of 2009,
when Barack Hussein Obama became the first black American president of the
worlds most powerful country. The main purpose of this essay is to analyze what
happened when a new president, representing a whole new generation, took his
own vision of a new world order and tried to apply it in a world that was resistant to
his will.
But before we deepen in the three points this essay is going to focus, we have to
know what his policy is about.
Obamas foreign policy already had an activist vision that had already been
marked for history, he wanted to change and renew USAs image around the
world, principally in the Middle East; end the two wars in which USA was involved;
developing significant cooperation with China on both regional and global issues;
reset relations with Russia (for the hostilities left by the Cold War) as a step toward
vanishing the nuclear weapons of the world; and setting peace in the Middle East.
The forty-fourth president of the United States sought nothing more, nothing less
than to right the wrongs of history in the direction of justice, and a more peaceful,
stable global order.
As far from now we can clearly see that Obamas policy is very different from any
other policies we have seen in the last decades, mainly to George W. Bushs
foreign policy, his antecessor, in fact we can say that his policy was anything but
Bush. Mainly highlighted in the war on Iraq, Bush was sure of what he did when
we declared war to Iraq, he believed the country was a threat to the world, while on
the other hand Obama wanted to end this war since day one. However, both had
something in common, they ensured the safety of Americans and were firm to their
posture against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Generally, Obamas foreign policy was perceived as an idealistic one, tough he
was praised by the people and it was his policy which granted him the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2009.

So, back to the question, how do elements of the different International Relations
theories reflect on Barak Obamas foreign policy with regards to Iraq, Libya, and
Russia?
We have two elements to discuss in here, realism and liberalism. Realism refers to
the relations between states, and according to this theory, these relations revolve
around power. And liberalism, perceived as a factor of progress and change,
liberals emphasize the notion of power against power and insist on the role of the
people, law and international institutions, which come to limit the power of States.
Lets analyze the withdrawal of US troops in Iraq, beginning in 2007 started by the
Bush administration, but completed by Obama in 2011 bringing an end to the Iraq
War. He wanted to end this war in order to reestablish peace between the two
countries, this is where realism highlights, he knew the situation between the two
nations and the reason why the war stated, power. Bush and his allies believed
that Iraq had in its possession mass destruction weapons and that Saddam Husein
had been secretly cooperating with Al Qaeda. But whats interesting is that the
major reason why the war ended and the US troops withdrawal was public opinion,
55% of Americans believed that the Iraq War was a mistake, and 51% of registered
voters favored troop withdrawal from Iraq in 2007. This fact illustrates perfectly the
liberalism.
As he reduced the number of troops in Iraq and incremented troops in Afghanistan
to stop the Islamic State, the main objective was to find the leader of al-Qaeda
Osama Bin Laden and overthrow him, which was accomplished in 2011 by an
American operative. This is one of the biggest asserts why the Obama
administration is praised.
The same year, the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) coalition began a
military intervention in Libya to stop leader Muammar Gaddafi from using violence
to suppress popular demonstrations in his country. 10 countries helped enforcing a
no-fly zone and naval blockade and giving military logistic assistance, of course the
United States was one of those countries. Although at the end USA helped
overthrow Gaddafi, Obama himself considers this event as the worst mistake of his
presidency. why? Because it left the country completely unstable. But again
liberalism is shown as the public opinion was suppressed and the countries acted
but not quite as well as they should, as they should have thought of a more realistic
way to intervene without leaving the country in a crisis.
And finally, of course we need to discuss the situation with Russia. As we know this
two countries couldnt quite recover their relationship after the hostilities caused by
The Cold War. Nevertheless, President Obama called for a reset between both
nations, The Russian Reset in 2009. He announced that the US will not build the
missile defense shield in Europe, as the Bush Administration planned to do, the
Russian president Vladimir Putin responded by reducing Russias nuclear
arsenals.

Although many people think that far from improving these countries relations, US
has conceded just too much to Russia.
A realistic policy is to accept that Russia has historic national interests in the
region and that these should be considered, especially if the United States decides
not to embark on another conflagration like Iraq.
In conclusion, both elements, realism and liberalism reflect in almost every event
caused by Obamas foreign policy, because he merely based his policy around
these two elements, he knew the position of the US in the world, and how his
nation was seen from other countries, and he wanted to changed that image
because Americans didnt want to be in war anymore. He reflected liberalism when
he thought about the public opinion of his country, and he reflected realism by
knowing the relation of the US and countries like Iraq, Libya, and Russia, and the
origin of the conflicts between the nations and how to approach and resolute each
one of them.

References:
Martin S. Indyk,Kenneth G. Lieberthal,Michael E. O'Hanlon. (2012). Bending
History: Barack Obama's Foreign Policy. Washington D.C: The Brookings
Institution.
Stephen M. Walt. (2016). Obama Was Not a Realist President. 31/08/16, de FP
Sitio web: http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/07/obama-was-not-a-realist-presidentjeffrey-goldberg-atlantic-obama-doctrine/
Dominic Tierney (2016).The Legacy of Obamas Worst Mistake. 31/08/16, de The
Atlantic
Sitio
web:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/obamas-worst-mistakelibya/478461