The Real Rebalancing: American Diplomacy and the Tragedy of President Obama's Foreign Policy
Abstract
Agreement negotiated between Iran and the so-called P5+1 the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council consisting of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, plus Germany is the subject of heated debate within Washington. The negotiations that produced the agreement perhaps best exemplify the efforts by the Barack Obama administration to use diplomacy to address the most vexing security challenges of the day. The United States and Iran have struggled to overcome mutual hostility and distrust stemming from the 1953 coup against the Mohammad Mossadegh government and the 1979-80 hostage crisis, not to mention Teheran s use of Hezbollah as a proxy against American ally Israel. Yet despite this, the administration persisted over several years to first intensify and broaden economic sanctions against Iran, and then to engage in painstaking negotiations with an authoritarian country that routinely and methodically employs anti- American rhetoric. In many ways, this shift in approach toward greater reliance on diplomacy or, as Dr. John R. Deni puts it, this rebalancing represents a marked contrast with the approach of President Obama s predecessor. The administration of President George W. Bush was frequently accused of favoring the use of unilateral military power over multilateral diplomacy and development as the primary tool of American national security. Indeed, the effort to rebalance the threelegged stool of U.S. national security has been a hallmark of the Obama years, as Dr. Deni persuasively argues in this monograph. In Dr. Deni s view, this defining characteristic of President Obama s foreign policy overshadows in scope, depth, and importance the other rebalance most often associated with the 44th President that is, the rebalance to the Pacific.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2015
- Accession Number
- ADA623799
Entities
People
- John R. Deni
Organizations
- United States Army War College