Obama's Foreign Policy Change

Five months since the establishment of Barack Obama’s administration, through a series of visits to South America, Europe and Middle East, the new U.S. president demonstrated a different diplomatic policy in terms of ideology, strategy and style from the past administration.

Using U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s word, the goals of Obama’s foreign policy include renewing leadership, enhancing security, advancing interests and reflecting the values of America.

During the Bush era, the U.S. started losing popularity among the rest of the world after the controversial invasion of Iraq and the declaration of a world-wide war on terrorism. With the recent reports about violations of human rights at the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons, there is indeed an urging need for the new U.S. president to recover the lost moral ground, to rebuild the fading foreign relationships and to re-establish the leading role of the U.S.

To achieve these goals, the newly inaugurated Obama’s administration has already set a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and ordered the closures of Guantanamo and some oversea detention camps. More than that, two pieces of new diplomatic concepts have been introduced: Smart Power and 3D. Smart Power is defined as the combination of soft and hard power, while 3D comes from the first letter of third words: diplomacy, development and defense.

Many would agree that these two concepts are sourced from the painful lessons learnt from the Iraq War, which negated Bush’s belief in omnipotence of military power. The new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy recently unveiled by President Obama demonstrated a different style of foreign policy toward the terrorist war zones – employing more troops in the region against al-Qaeda militants, but also emphasizing regional diplomacy and economic development.

Opposite to the unilateralism adopted by the Bush administration, Obama recognized three main areas targeted to make a diplomatic partnership: 1. strengthen relationships with traditional European and Asian allies (most European countries, Korea and Japan), 2. enhance countries with high regional significance (India, Indonesia, Brazil and Eygpt), and 3. build constructive relationships with two superpowers (China and Russia).

Taking an approach drastically different from the Bush administration, Obama softened the U.S. stance with old rivals, like the Islamic world. His speeches given to visiting countries were always with a humble attitude, showing a willingness to open a dialogue and stressing the importance of mutual respect and understanding.

The changing diplomacy style, or “Smart Diplomacy” stressed by Obama can best be visualized by his using of “appropriate” words in his speeches.

In the speech given at Cairo University, he dropped wording like “Islamic fascist” and replaced with the less sensitive “violent extremist.” He chose to not group Arabic countries into moderate and extremist groups, and did not label Hamas and Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah as terrorist groups, nor did he suggest Iran has offered support to terrorist groups.

Even more impressive, Obama acknowledged that Hamas has enjoyed popularity among Palestinian people while urging the militant group to put an end to violence. He later added that all elected parties coming from democratic procedures are welcomed. This may even hint at a possible cooperation between the U.S. administration and the Hamas group in the future.

Obama’s change of foreign policy generated positive results by reshaping the U.S. image and rebuilding relationships with many significant countries. At the same time, it heightened expectations of people around the world for a U.S. administration that will put word into action and establish relationships with the world based on mutual interest and respect.