President Barack Obama on Wednesday outlined his foreign policy vision during a commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Bruce JentlesonProfessor of political science and public policy, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke Universitybwj7@duke.eduhttp://fds.duke.edu/db/Sanford/faculty/bwj
Jentleson is a leading scholar on American foreign policy who has worked in both the Obama and Clinton State Departments on the Middle East as well as genocide and mass atrocities prevention. He is currently on leave as a distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In a Washington Quarterly article published this spring, Jentleson proposed a framework for a U.S. national security strategy: https://twq.elliott.gwu.edu/sites/twq.elliott.gwu.edu/files/downloads/Je....
Quote:"The speech was strongest on what our foreign policy should not be. It should not be isolationist and it should not be military driven. It laid out a set of objectives which is unobjectionable, but it still falls short of framing an overarching strategy for meeting the challenges we face."
"It uses lots of examples and anecdotes. But at a time in which the world is in flux, we really need to think in terms of core strategic constructs like how to adapt deterrence, what are the requisites of coercive diplomacy and what does it really take to build partnerships not just on our part but on the part of others. In these and other respects it dodges the really tough questions."
Hal BrandsAssistant professor of public policy and history, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke Universityhenry.brands@duke.eduhttp://fds.duke.edu/db/Sanford/faculty/henry.brands
Brands researches U.S. foreign policy and history. He is the author of "What Good is Grand Strategy? Power and Purpose in American Statecraft From Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush" (Cornell University Press, 2014). He has worked at the Institute for Defense Analysis and has been a member of the RAND Corporation Grand Strategy Advisory Board.
Quote:"President Obama's speech was clearly intended to counter criticisms that the administration's foreign policy is rudderless, or that it lacks a guiding grand strategy. It laid out a vision for American leadership that is still active in building coalitions, shaping global opinion, but less prone to major missteps that could have disastrous consequences."
"The president's supporters are likely to see this speech as reaffirming a prudent, if not flashy, U.S. approach to managing a complex and fluid international environment. His critics are more likely to see it as a formula for inaction in crises that demand more robust responses and a template for U.S. withdrawal from global leadership."