Obama’s Descent from the Nobel Prize to Worldwide Distrust

France closes its airspace and Morales is forced to stop in Vienna; Snowden isn’t on board. The South Americans are furious.

Soon after being elected president, Barack Obama was unexpectedly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Many people grimaced: Wouldn’t it have been better to wait and see how he did on the job before giving him an award that should go to someone who really worked for the good of mankind? Well, four years later, “many people” have become hundreds of millions. Almost everywhere he goes, the president of the United States is greeted with diffidence, if not downright hostility, because the whole world has realized that he is not the Messiah that many – especially liberals – were hoping for. Rather, he is only a politician who, on the world stage, has hardly kept any of his promises and who prefers to wing it.

The most recent example can be found in Egypt. Two years ago, Obama, fascinated by the Arab Spring, overthrew Hosni Mubarak, one of the United States’ most loyal allies, and then he did what he could to work with the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi. Now that the majority of Egyptians are contesting their leadership, Washington doesn’t know which side to support and it is not using economic policy to influence the events.

There are holes everywhere in Obama’s foreign policy. He took on the serious challenge of resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict, but he managed only to further alienate both parties. He had promised to improve relations with Russia, but instead they are almost as cold as they were during the war. There are continual arguments that have degenerated into an almost personal conflict. He completely committed himself to coming out on top in the war in Afghanistan, and the result is that, at the conclusion of next year, he will ingloriously withdraw without meeting with the head of the Taliban. He attempted to stop Iran’s progress toward the atom bomb, first through diplomacy, and then with stricter sanctions, but Iran continued on its path and now they are only a few months away from a nuclear weapon. For a long time – for once, acting wisely – he refused to intervene in Syria for fear that the supplies of weapons might fall into the hands of those who support al-Qaida, but he changed his mind at the moment in which the Assad regime appeared to have, once again, gained the upper hand. He decided that Washington, at this point, is more interested in Asia than Europe. However, his attempts, also personal, to establish a good relationship with the new Chinese leadership have not become anything more than good intentions.

And now, to complete the story, he has come into conflict with Europe over Snowden’s revelations of espionage. Even during his speech in June in Berlin, one could see that the climate had changed since his last speech five years prior, when, as a presidential candidate, he was triumphantly welcomed by two hundred thousand people. For quite some time, EU politicians, from Hollande to Merkel, have spoken to the U.S. in harsh tones and Obama has promised to “provide explanations” that, up until now, have not materialized. We understand that Americans might have some good reasons, because the fight against terrorism is also in our interest. But it still remains true that Obama’s U.S., by alienating itself from the Europeans, has left itself with very few friends and less influence than it had five years ago. Not a good result for a president who aspires to leave behind an important legacy.