George Friedman on Obama's foreign policy

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George Friedman on Obama's foreign policy

26 Jan 2010

Speakers: George Friedman

George Friedman explores President Obama’s difficult position when it comes to foreign policy, and, to a lesser extent, domestic policy. Friedman states from the outset that he is not interested in power, but rather constraints – the limitations of power. He suggests that the American Presidency is a weak institution, sandwiched between the Supreme Court on one side and the House of Representatives and the Senate on the other. This is what the Founding Father’s intended – they wanted a weak president who needed a strong consensus in order to get anything done. As a consequence of this, Obama has very little power when it comes to domestic affairs, but in US terms, he is as strong internationally as he is weak domestically.

However, Obama’s foreign policy is as restricted as his domestic policy, but for different reasons. Obama was quick to criticise George W Bush for his unilateral approach to foreign policy, and suggested that mistakes made during the Iraq conflict and occupation could have been avoided if Bush had worked more closely with European countries. But Friedman points out that Europe is a very inward and parochial place, a series of polities that don’t necessarily share the same political views as each other. It is the conflicting interests and complex history of Europe that proves to be the constraint on Obama’s foreign policy.

Obama will never have the multilateral support he so desires because European countries don’t have the same interests as the US – they don’t see 9/11 or Al-Qaeda in the same light as the Americans.