Walter Russell Mead argues that Barack Obama might yet revolutionize America's foreign policy. But if he can't reconcile his inner Thomas Jefferson with his inner Woodrow Wilson, the 44th president could end up like No. 39.
Clive Crook argues that the main dissapointment of President Obama's first year was his deferral to partisan politics and inability to engage Republicans and Democrats alike.
President Obama has had some success in fixing the foreign policy mess left to him by the Bush administration, writes Leslie Gelb, but he warns that foreign policy does not always work by analysis and logic.
"Thing are going to get worse before they get better," writes Walter Russell Mead, laying out a summary of the many things that have gone wrong during President Obama's first year in office.
Based on the recent findings of a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center and the Council on Foreign Relations, support for President Obama's foreign policy is dwindling amongst the American public, writes James Lindsay.
George Friedman compares the first year of President Obama's foreign policy to that of former President Reagan. He contends that Obama's strategy has been "enigmatic" early on and will need to define his policy in the months ahead.
Americans searching for a new Obama foreign policy, need to look back to the closing words of Obama’s West Point speech, writes Leslie Gelb, pointing to the president's emphasis on the United States' number one imperative: Economic Strength.
The irony of President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize is that he has actually dialed down support for human rights around the world, writes Joshua Kurlantzick.
President Obama, a newly minted Nobel Peace Prize winner, now faces the daunting task of delivering on a range of challenges, especially nuclear nonproliferation and climate change, says CFR's Michael Levi.
In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance, President Obama, while arguing the need for peace, made a supremely realistic statement about the limitations of international institutions, the need to talk to tyrants, and the unavoidability of war, says CFR's Richard Haass.
The Economist weighs in on the debate surrounding president Obama's diplomacy. Has he been clever, or weak? Does he have the strategy and the will to use force to fulfill his promises? The coming weeks, according to the Economist, may likely be his litmus test.
Elizabeth Economy provides a brief assessment of President Obama's China visit during his trip to Asia, writing that, "it was, optically, one of the worst U.S. presidential visits to Beijing in memory," however, substantively, it was on par with recent presidential trips to China.
The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.
Special operations play a critical role in how the United States confronts irregular threats, but to have long-term strategic impact, the author argues, numerous shortfalls must be addressed.
The author analyzes the potentially serious consequences, both at home and abroad, of a lightly overseen drone program and makes recommendations for improving its governance.
Two experts argue that despite myriad development strategies, only one can succeed in alleviating poverty in India: the overall growth of the country's economy. More