Barack Obama's Post-American Foreign Policy The Limits of Engagement [Paperback]

After one of the most controversial and divisive periods in the history of American foreign policy under President George W. Bush, the Obama administration was expected to make changes for the better in US relations with the wider world. Now, international problems confronting Obama appear more intractable, and there seems to be a marked continuity in policies between Obama and his predecessor.

Robert Singh argues that Obama's approach of 'strategic engagement' was appropriate for a new era of constrained internationalism, but it has yielded modest results. Obama's search for the pragmatic middle has cost him political support at home and abroad, whilst failing to make decisive gains. Singh suggests by calibrating his foreign policies to the emergence of a 'post-American'world, the president has yet to preside over a renaissance of US global leadership. Ironically,Obama's policies have instead hastened the arrival of a post-American world.

This book offers a detailed, balanced and comprehensive examination of the foreign policy of Barack Obama from his evolution as an elected official and presidential candidate, through the 2008 campaigns and the transition, and then across the first term of his presidency.

Introduction: Obama, the Post-American World and the Black Man's Burden Inheritance and Transition: Towards an Obama Doctrine? The war on terror Afghanistan and Pakistan Iran Israel & Palestine China Russia Europe Conclusion: The Limits of Engagement Index

Robert Singhis Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. His publications includeAmerican Government and Politics(2003),Contemporary American Politics: Issues and Controversies(2003), (as co-editor)The Bush Doctrine and the War on Terrorism(2006) and (as co-author)After Bush: The Case For Continuity in American Foreign Policy(2008).