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News Tip: Obama 'Leading From Behind' in Confronting ISIS, Expert Says

The president's problem with ISIS isn’t an incomplete strategy, it's a failing one, writes Peter Feaver, a professor of political science and public policy.

President Obama’s problem with ISIS isn’t an incomplete strategy, it's a failing one, writes Peter Feaver, a Duke professor of political science and public policy.•    Quotes: "Critics are understandably lambasting the president for the apparent dilatoriness, and I have some sympathy for the critique. If you begin the clock with President Obama’s remarkable January 2014 dismissal of the Islamic State as a 'jayvee threat' -- something the White House still pretends the president did not say, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary -- and trace the president’s response to the growing Islamic State threat, the charge of delinquency is almost impossible to deny," writes Peter Feaver, a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University, in his Foreign Policy blog "Shadow Government" (http://tinyurl.com/owyyhul)."Yet, in this instance, I think the critics and the president are both wrong. The problem is not an absence of strategy, it is that the strategy that does exist is failing and the administration is not yet willing to admit that fact.""The strategy is pretty self-evident: U.S. forces are operating under stringent self-imposed limitations so as to incentivize local partners (the Iraqi government, Sunni tribes, and moderate rebels in Syria) to do more. The United States is prepared perhaps to do a bit more if local actors do a lot more, but if local actors do not step up, the United States is not prepared to do more.""On the contrary, the United States is prepared to accept hitherto 'unacceptable' setbacks -- the fall of Mosul, the fall of Ramadi, the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, the regional expansion of Iranian-backed terrorist organizations and militias, and on and on -- rather than intervene more decisively.""This is a recognizable strategy. There is even a catchy name for it: leading from behind."•    Bio:Peter Feaver is a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University. He also directs the Triangle Institute for Security Studies and is director of the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy. From 2005 to 2007, Feaver served as a special adviser for Strategic Planning and Institutional Reform on the National Security Council Staff at the White House. http://tinyurl.com/5uz3ptjBlog: http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/

•    For additional comment, contact Feaver at:pfeaver@duke.edu