Does Obama have a coherent foreign policy? Does it matter? In this article Dr. Cooper identifies some basic principles of Obama’s foreign policy whilst dismissing simplistic categorizations such as realist or liberal. Whilst the seeming lack of consistency in Obama’s policies isn’t historically unusual, it does pose problems for predicting how America will respond to foreign policy challenges in the near future.
Dr Simon Leitch analyses the current Iraqi crisis. As Iraq today is rocked by attacks from ISIS a blame game has started to undermine Nuri al-Maliki’s government. Maliki, so the argument goes, needs to do more for Sunnis or the country needs to be divided up along sectarian lines. Such a dichotomy is not helpful, as Maliki’s new democracy cannot be easily divided nor can Maliki give the Sunnis minority an equal say in the running of a Shia-dominated state.
As debate continues over whether the Obama administration has done enough to prevent the rise of ISIS, it is worth thinking about the broader consequences of America’s war in Iraq. Dr. Danny Cooper, Alochonaa’s American Foreign Policy Editor argues that ‘one such consequence is a deep uncertainty about how the United States should employ its power’. in Danny’s view, the 2003 Iraq War, in fact, contributed greatly to undermining a number of ideas about how the United States should fight its wars in the twenty-first century.
Alochonaa (Dialogue) 