Obama describes himself as an internationalist because he spreads democracy worldwide based on human rights, the rule of law, and property rights. Obama supports a doctrine called unilateralism, which is part of his foreign policy toward other countries in the Middle East. The Arab Spring was in full swing during 2011, but the emerging Obama doctrine, which was more pragmatic than Bush’s, established a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq in 2008. Forces were sent to Afghanistan and later retreated from the region’s quagmire so that the president could focus on the problems in his own country: winning elections in his first term.
Obama gave a speech at the United Nations on his intervention into Libya to secure oil wells and bring stability to the Middle East by coordinating the Palestinian state with Israel to negotiate a settlement to end Iran’s confrontation over nuclear power, but he refused to go into Syria.
It would be complex to intervene in a civil war because the Obama camp has rejected the unilateralism of the Bush era. Obama ran in both presidential election campaigns and put national security and foreign policy on the back burner. The Obama Doctrine reprocesses America’s commitment on an exceptional basis leading to the decline of the West.
Barack Obama said that he would only use force selectively when intervening in other countries; however, Neocons believed that they were changing the world for the better by spreading democracy and human rights along with liberal internationalism. This is how Obama put it: “ “conflicts in Syria, Ukraine, or the Central African Republic are not ours to solve. And not surprisingly, after costly wars and continuing challenges here at home, that view is shared by many Americans.”
A recent Pew Poll found that 50 percent of Americans today believe that the United States should not get involved in conflicts. Americans fought two wars during the 20th century in Southeast Asia to stop the Communist menace,
the Korean War and the Vietnam War, to contain the Soviet Union from expanding into the Asia Pacific region. The White House has been very reluctant to get involved in another conflict in Southeast Asia. The Obama administration has moved away from a unilateral approach to most issues in a globalized world.
Neoconservative intellectual Robert Kagan wants America to fix the world’s problems by being a sheriff in the self-interest of the U.S. and taking the role of leader without putting the U.S.
Boots on the ground in Syria or the Middle East. This is how Obama put it to self-described realists, and conflicts are not ours to solve in Syria, Ukraine, or the Central African Republic, which is the view of many Americans. Liberal interventionists from left or right ideologies are spreading democracy and preserving international norms. The tradition of American presidents since Jimmy Carter is to expand human rights and political freedom to the rest of the world. Ronald Reagan oversaw the implosion of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany. The Allies bombed the Axis powers, leading to their collapse and ending European colonialism. This brought independence to countries like Ireland, Israel, and India.
America has used Cold War to expand into Latin America to contain communism in the region. And fighting proxy wars in Congo and Angola which was the Truman Doctrine.
To many Americans, staying out of other countries’ affairs in Europe and Providence would give Americans the right to intervene in Latin America.
Claiming a stake in Spanish America, which was part of the New World, including concerns about markets creating competition with the Spanish for territorial expansion because they threatened their goals in that area. Democrat James K. Polk invented the Monroe Doctrine in 1845, although the 1823 message was a statement for territorial expansion. This would pay off, though the strategy enabled a war with Mexico to cede the American southwest until the French colonized Mexico. Furthermore, the Old World \ New World struggle would need American vigilance. James A. Garfield and Secretary of State Blaine put pan-Americanism first in the 1880s. President Theodore Roosevelt, “in his 1904 speech,” forwarded the U.S. as an international police power. The Crown decided not to help the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Grover Cleveland was the last conservative Democratic president for whom the foreign policy wasn’t part of his two terms in office. Despite this, he stopped Germans from taking control of Samoa without U.S. interest in the Pacific at stake. President Barack Obama does understand the historical nature of the Sino-American bilateral partnership with the signing of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation [APEC] because former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took part and changed the balance of the U.S. military operations in the Pacific regions by deploying 5,000 Navy officers at Darwin in Australia to become stronger in the East China Sea and compete with the Chinese for resources.
Mr. Obama is selling out his allies to appease his enemies in multipolar realism by avoiding his obligations; Another example is Iran; despite street protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election, he didn’t want to be sacrificed for the Islamic messiah, which is called the hidden imam and the standoff between Russia and America that has started a new Cold War. Obama has set an example that international relations have the interest of politics.
Barack Obama is a progressive liberal whose administration has been confronting the economy and the criminal justice system as well as so-called global warming, in addition to the war on drugs and fighting wars on multiple fronts around the globe. That way, progressives keep making the same mistakes while being led by hope and change. Obama may not be any different from other politicians in contrast to how it was with George W. Bush and his begging of the Iraqi war. Obama has damaged America’s credibility in that region; however, this is not a deterrent simply by getting rid of Assad. Joe Biden had warned Obama about having a redline on chemical weapons. At the time, Obama believed there were threats in the Middle East that needed U.S. military intervention. Besides AI Qaeda being a threat to Israel and nuclear-armed Iran, Obama faced many other issues but failed.
Sources
- “The Obama Doctrine; Opening a Pathway to America’s Decline.” The Washington Times (Washington, DC) 25 July 2009. Questia. Web. 18 Aug. 2016.
- Sanger, David E. “For Obama, an Evolving World Doctrine.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, PA) 29 Sept. 2013. Questia. Web. 18 Aug. 2016.
- Writer, Gordon Lubold. “The Emerging Obama Doctrine.” The Christian Science Monitor 11 Mar. 2009. Questia. Web. 18 Aug. 2016.
- Esposito, Luigi, and Laura L. Finley, eds. Grading the 44th President: A Report Card on Barack Obama’s First Term as a Progressive Leader. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2012. Questia. Web. 18 Aug. 2016.
- Writer, Gordon Lubold. “The Emerging Obama Doctrine.” The Christian Science Monitor 11 Mar. 2009. Questia. Web. 18 Aug. 2016.
- Vaughn, Justin S., and Jennifer R. Jennifer, eds. The Rhetoric of Heroic Expectations: Establishing the Obama Presidency. College Station, TX: Texas A&M UP, 2014. Questia. Web. 18 Aug. 2016.
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