US foreign policy in 2014...

Click HERE to watch President Obama give his 2014 State of the Union address (extract)
US Iran diplomacy

The USA and the world from 2009 to 2016. A more multipolar world?

President Barak Obama (2009-2017)

During the two-term presidency of Barak Obama (January 2009 to January 2017), US hegemony continued to be challenged by Islamist terrorist groups, especially Islamic State.

The dominant position in the world of the USA was also undermined by:

• the economic downturn following the financial crisis of 2008 (the “Great Recession”);
• the trade deficit (the USA imported more than it exported);
• the high public debt and private debt levels;
• rising inequality in the USA;
• the economic might of transnational corporations (taking power away from the Federal Government);
• anti-globalization NGOs and mouvements (for example the Occupy Wall Street protests);
• the rise of the BRICS countries, on an economic level (within the WTO too) and, increasingly, at a geopolitical level;
• the cost of financing the “military-industrial complex”;
• the proliferation of nuclear weapons;
• the proliferation of biological and chemical weapons (that are cheap and readily available to terrorist groups and to states like Syria);
• the situation in North Korea and the Middle East;
• deteriorating relations with Russia (especially after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, its attacks on Ukraine and its support of the Hassad regime in Syria);
• organized crime (and the drug trade).

The world became increasingly multipolar, the USA having/wanting to share decision-making more with other centres of power: the Russian Federation, China, and, to a lesser extent, Europe. The bipolar world of the Cold War period (and the clearly unipolar world during the Clinton-Bush Jr. years) appeared to some less unstable than the more multipolar world under Obama.

Barak Obama, elected in November 2008, became the 44th President of the USA on 20 January 2009. His message, at the height of the financial crisis, was one of boosting national confidence: “Yes we can!” was his electoral slogan. For many, the American Dream had become a nightmare: increased poverty, social unrest and violence (lack of gun control), ever greater disparities between the wealthy and the poor, worsening health (and difficulties in implementing a workable national healthcare system), etc.

Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State (head of the Department of State) during Obama’s first term (2009-13). She made efficient use of “smart power”, a pragmatic mix of diplomatic, legal, military, economic and “cultural” means to implement the Obama Administration’s foreign policy. Obama’s foreign policy can be described as multilateral, realist and (very) cautious. Consensus was sought with foreign partners; conflict had to be avoided.

The war in Afghanistan (launched by Bush Jr. in 2001) drew to a close at the end of 2014. The war in Iraq (started by Bush Jr. in 2003) was ended in 2011. In his 2009 Cairo speech, Obama said that the war in Afghanistan was necessary in the fight against terrorism. He also said that he disapproved of the war in Iraq (though he did not regret the elimination of Saddam Hussein).

The Situation Room (May 1st 2011)

Though the Guantanamo base was not (as promised by Obama) closed, the use of torture there was stopped. Al-Qaeda was undermined by the assassination of its leader Osama Bin Laden in 2011 by US Navy SEALs.

How effective is US foreign policy on Syria? 

After his re-election in 2012, Obama’s foreign policy impressed perhaps less than during his first term in office; Obama was accused of being overly cautious (mostly by the Right). He had serious problems with knowing how to cope with Islamic State terrorist groups. In a speech in December 2016 at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, Obama all but conceded that he was unable to get America out of the foreign wars, large and small, that grew out of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Obama said: “We know that in some form this violent extremism will be with us for years to come. (…) In too many parts of the world, especially in the Middle East, there has been a breakdown of order that's been building for decades, and it’s unleashed forces that are going to take a generation to resolve.”

John Kerry was Secretary of State from February 2013 to January 2017. There were positive foreign policy achievements: in 2015, he supported the Paris Agreement on global climate change, brokered the nuclear deal with Iran, and restored diplomatic relations with Cuba. Also, under Obama, the USA decided to meddle less in Latin America. "The days in which our agenda in this hemisphere so often presumed that the United States could meddle with impunity, those days are past," stated Obama in 2015 during a visit to Panama.

Regarding the GWOT (launched by Bush after 9/11), Obama stated in 2013 that: "We must define our effort not as a boundless 'Global War on Terror,' but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America." Nevertheless, U.S. military forces were at war for all eight years of Obama’s tenure: he launched airstrikes or military raids in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.

Accusations from the political Right included being ineffectual in the Syrian civil war (cf. the cartoon), and too conciliatory with Iran over its nuclear arms capacity. Many liberals, however, saw no real difference with the foreign policy of previous Administrations: the intensive use of drones and extensive NSA surveillance were, for them, proof of the usual imperialist stance of the USA…

The USA and the world from 2001-2009; the hyperpower contested.

The unipolar world of the 90s (i.e. with the USA as unique superpower, as sole center of power) continued into the years 2000. However, the US’s hegemonic position, in which the USA tried to impose a “new world order”, became more and more contested...

US “Stars and Stripes” flag being burned

by (radical?) Muslims (Bangladesh, 2001?)

The demonstrators shown in the photo above are expressing their loathing of what they see as American imperialism. Islamists (supporters of Islamic fundamentalism) see the USA as decadent; they strongly reject US military and economic intervention in the Middle East and also hate the USA because it is an ally of Israel.

President George W. Bush (2001-2009)

In 2001, George W. Bush, the son of George Bush (the 41st President), became the 43rd President of the USA (he served until 2009).

9/11 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, NYC

The vulnerability of the USA to terrorist attacks was spectacularly demonstrated on the the 11th September 2001 when al-Qaeda destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City, symbol of America's economic domination, and attacked the Pentagon in Washington D.C., symbol of its military might. The terrorists succeeded in creating a climate of insecurity and the US's supremacy in the world was shaken; this violent anti-Americanism challenged America's sense of "manifest destiny" (i.e. that the US has to lead the world and promote its values abroad). The Bush Administration reacted aggressively to this attack on mainland America (it wanted revenge?); the US foreign policy became unilateralist and Bush launched his strongly interventionist War on Terror against the Taliban and al-Qaeda and the "rogue countries" suspected of supporting terrorism. The Department of Homeland Security was set up in 2011 to coordinate anti-terrorist actions.

The US's unilateralist stance meant that it also refused to take part in multilateral negotiations on urgent world problems such as climate change.

In 2001, the USA led a coalition, under UN mandate, to attack the Taliban in Afghanistan (the last US soldiers left at the end of 2014). This was approved by the UN Security Council and widely supported as a legitimate response to the 9/11 attacks (the Taliban were supporters of Bin Laden). 4,804 Coalition soldiers (including 2,165 US soldiers) were killed. The civilian victims in the 2007 to 2012 period numbered over 16,000 (most killed by the Taliban, according to the UN).

Bush reasserted his anti-terrorist stance at his State of the Union Address in January 2002. He listed the “axis of evil” countries that posed a threat to the USA and the world, including Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and North Korea. He praised those countries that were assisting the USA in its fight, including Pakistan.

Saddam Hussein (2006)

In 2003, the Bush Administration launched the Iraq War on the suspicion that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction (no evidence of this was found) and that Saddam Hussein supported al-Qaeda (there was nothing to support this claim). The invasion was not approved by the UN and lead to many anti-war and anti-Bush protests throughout the world. The UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, supported Bush's attack on Iraq. Saddam Hussein was captured and executed in 2006. The last US soldiers were pulled out in 2011 (by Barack Obama). The number of deaths is estimated at about half a million (including nearly 4,475 US service members). There were incidents of torture on the part of US soldiers, notably at Abu Ghraib prison. Further controversy was the treatment of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

Editorial cartoon condemning the Iraq War

(WMD means "weapon of mass destruction")

The total cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has been estimated at between four and six trillion dollars.

Cartoon by Peter Nicholson

The above political cartoon was published in the Australian Times in October 2002; it is a humorous take on the increasing dangers to world stability. The list of places the son or daughter is warned to keep away from include bars (crowds, associated with possible terrorist attacks), Westerners and Easterners (i.e. everybody), planes (a reference to the Lockerbie plane crash in 1988 caused by terrorists, and to 9/11), the Middle East (a reference to all the problems in that part of the world), Bali (terrorist attack in 2002), and Indonesia (politically unstable).

Editorial cartoon by Adam Zyglis

criticizing the Patriot Act (2006)

The Bush Administration passed the USA PATRIOT Act in 2006; this anti-terrorism legislation has been very controversial because considered by many to be a means for the government to intrude on the privacy of ordinary citizens. This law to "deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes..." gives the US Federal government the right to arrest and hold indefinitely any person suspected of terrorist activity. It could be argued that the terrorists "won" because, after 9/11, there were greater restrictions on individual freedom, there was less trust of the authorities, and there was increased victimization of ordinary (mostly Muslim) citizens...

President George W. Bush, after having had very high approval ratings after 9/11, steadily lost popularity because of the war in Iraq (from 2003), the mismanagement of the Hurricane Katrina disaster (2005), the abuses of the Patriot Act (from 2006), and the economic downturn (from 2007).

Cartoon critical of  President Bush (2008)

In September 2008, Lehman Brothers, an American bank, was the first of several financial institutions to go bust. It was an inevitable step in a financial crisis that had started at the end of 2007 and that was due mostly to short-term profit-seeking by banks. Many US families had borrowed money from banks to purchase a house (they took out mortgages), but they could not afford to pay the money back (the interest rates were too high). More than two million people lost their homes (this is known as the subprimes scandal). The financial crisis became economic and social and has spread world-wide (cf. the Eurozone crisis).

The American economic model is based on growth; this growth necessitates massive borrowing which, when the economy is healthy, is not a problem (in 1945, the debt was massive, but the economy healthy). Since Reagan (1980), public debt (made up mostly of what the US has borrowed from foreign lenders) has much increased (as has private debt, i.e. the money citizens have borrowed from banks). The US government spends more than it gets in taxes. In 1982, public debt (also know as government debt) stood at $1000 billion (one trillion dollars) due to increased military spending and tax cuts. In 1992, it stood at $3,500 billion (Bush Senior spent money on the Gulf War). In 1996, under Clinton, it was at $5,000 billion. By 2008, that had doubled (Bush Junior tax cuts and cost of wars). By 2011, the debt stood at $15,000 billion. Today it is about $17,000 billion ($17 trillion); the USA owes Japan and China over one trillion dollars each. Private debt in the USA is about $40,000 billion. This dependence on foreign loans could undermine the US's economic dominance. Economic mismanagement of the world's (still) biggest economy has had repercussions on the world's economy...

The USA and the world: 1991-2001, the hyperpower

The USA, post-Cold War, has been described as the hyperpower (i.e. the only superpower, since the USSR no longer exists). Dominating economically and militarily the world, it acts (with or without UN consent) whenever and wherever it feels its interests are threatened; this was true especially in the years 2000 under George W. Bush.

The hyperpower status of the USA means it leads in all domains:

• resources (the country has huge reserves of land, natural resources and energy);
• economic (most of the world's top 100 TNCs are based in the USA);
• finance (the dollar remains the principal currency in world trade);
• military (the US spends a third of the world's military budget and makes use of sophisticated arms);
• high-technology (the USA pioneered information technology which it integrated first in industry, services, finance);
• research (60% of Nobel Prize winners are from the USA and there are half a million foreign students in the USA);
• ideology (the free market and democracy);
• culture (US culture has a strong influence throughout the world).

The US hegemony has not created a more stable world however; the world has become divided between those that more or less accept American domination and those that reject it. The Muslim world, for one, has largely rejected it, which explains the rise in terrorist attacks on the US and in countries seen as allies of the USA.

President George Bush (1989-93)

The 1991 Gulf War, led by George Bush Senior, was a success for the US-led coalition; Operation Desert Storm was seen as legitimate, approved by the UN and supported by most people, to free Kuwait from the Iraqi aggressor. However, Saddam Hussein continued as dictator of Iraq for the next twelve years… The Bush Administration was interventionist, as the Gulf War illustrates. The invasion of Panama in 1989 is another example.

President Bill Clinton (1993-2001)

In 1993, Bill Clinton, Democrat, became the 42nd President of the USA (up to 2001). The Clinton Administration spent less on foreign policy and defence (the USA was no longer faced with a rival country and was able to concentrate on domestic economic prosperity). Its foreign policy was essentially conciliatory, but this does not mean its power went uncontested; in 1992, al-Qaeda carried out the first of several terrorist attacks on US property and personnel (for example the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in NYC). Islamists (Islamic fundamentalists) saw the Gulf War and Clinton’s subsequent aggressive policy towards Iraq as unacceptable.

Rabin, Clinton, Arafat at the Oslo Accords signing ceremony (1993)

The USA acted as peacemaker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (1993 Oslo Accords), which did not however prevent the second Intifada (2000-2005).

The USA contributed to resolving the conflicts in former Yugoslavia as part of NATO: in 1994 against the Bosnian Serbs (this led to the Dayton Peace Accords brokered by the USA in 1995) and in the Kosovo War in 1999 against Serbian and Montenegrin forces (the NATO intervention had not been approved by the UN).

The USA and the world: 1977 to 1991, the end of the Cold War

The 1948-49 Berlin Blockade, the 1958-61 Berlin Crisis, and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis were “hot spots” of the Cold War in which the US prevailed. However, the failure of the Vietnam War (US involvement being greatest from 1963 to 1973), the assassinations of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963 and his brother Robert in 1968, and the shortcomings of the Nixon presidency (Watergate Scandal in 1972-74), plus the start of an economic downturn (Energy Crises in 1973 and 1979), dented the self-confidence of Americans but also tarnished the image of the USA abroad. The Soviet Union appeared powerful and the USA "weak" in comparison in the 1970s...

The greatest territorial extent of Communist states 1978 to 83

In 1977, the Soviets deployed SS-20 nuclear ballistic missiles with a 5,000 km strike capacity which threatened the US’s European allies and Israel. This marked the ending of the period of “Détente”.

The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to support the pro-Soviet regime there made the Cold War situation worse (the Red Army, having failed, pulled out in 1989).

1979 was the year of the revolution in Iran: Ayatollah Khomeini set up an Islamic republic and Iran became an enemy of the USA.

The Conservative Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of the UK in 1979 (she resigned in 1990); she was the most active supporter of the USA (the Soviets called her “the Iron Lady” because she was strong-willed and intransigent in international negotiations).

In 1980, Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia, died (which was one cause of the breakup of the country; the Yugoslav Wars lasted through the 1990s).

In 1981, Socialist François Mitterrand was elected President of France (1981-1995). France was not a full member of NATO from 1966 to 1999. Mitterrand supported the NATO initiative to deploy medium-range missiles in Europe during the Euromissiles crisis (1977-87).

1980 presidential campaign poster

In January 1981, Ronald Reagan, a Republican, took office as the 40th President of the USA. He succeeded in making the US more self-confident, and economically and militarily stronger (which increased the US debt considerably). His intransigence against the “Evil Empire”, with the support of Margaret Thatcher, was a cause of the downfall of the USSR in 1991.

Thatcher and Reagan

In his 1982 speech to the British House of Commons, Ronald Reagan denounced the totalitarian nature of the Soviet regime. From his point of view, the USSR did not respect freedom, and was responsible for the instability in international relations (increasing the risk of nuclear conflict). He considered the Soviet system economically redundant, unlike the democratic model which ensures economic prosperity. “Free societies” means “civilization, freedom, dignity, peace”, whereas “totalitarian forces” are “a terrible political invention” associated with “barbarous…evil…closed societies”. Reagan called for democratic countries (like the UK) to fight against “totalitarian evil”. Reagan’s aggressive stance (rollback policy) increased international tension. This accelerated the arms race and spending on armament. The USA became indebted, but so did the USSR which, with a weakened economy, inevitably collapsed within a few years. Also, the USSR soon realized that its costly war in Afghanistan was unpopular too with its allies and Non-Aligned countries (though justifiable in the Cold War context since the Soviet Union was trying to counter the growing influence of the USA in Pakistan). Gorbachev withdrew the troops in 1989. By 1996, Afghanistan was taken over by the Taliban  (supported by Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda).

Reagan fought Soviet influence in Third World countries, notably in Nicaragua. The government of this South America country was Sandinista, i.e. communist. Reagan, against the will of Congress, supported the counter-revolutionary Contras using the CIA. In 1986, Reagan, in a covert operation, sold arms to the Iranian regime to finance the Contras (this was called the “Irangate Scandal”). The Sandinistas lost the 1990 elections.

The Soviet SS-20s were the cause, in 1983, of what came to be known as the “Euro-Missile Crisis.” NATO deployed cruise and Pershing 2 missiles aimed at Moscow (despite wide-spread popular protests in the USA and in Europe). By 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, the reformist new leader of the USSR, was willing to consider the deal Reagan had offered prior to 1983: no U.S. missiles, if no Soviet SS-20s.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (he resigned in 1991). In 1988, he launched Perestroika (“restructuring” of the economic and social systems) and Glasnost (“transparency”, i.e. freedom of thought). He responded favorably to the Reagan Administration’s efforts in 1986 to improve relations with the Soviet Union (which led to the Reykjavik Summit in October 1986). Gorbachev needed to reduce military spending to save the regime, so improved relations with the West were in any case necessary.

Comments on the above cartoon by Nicholas Garland (published on 3rd January 1986 in the Daily Telegraph, a British broadsheet): this is an ironic comment on the geopolitical situation in 1986; the “skies” are all but “clear”… The “clear skies for all mankind” was a new Reagan policy to show its willingness to improve relations with the USSR, for a world free of the danger of nuclear weapons (and for more transparency in their relations?). The irony is that in fact the world was full of dangers and the skies (in the cartoon, metaphorically) polluted with Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”), the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the conflicts in South America (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua), and the conflicts in the Middle East (Israel invades Lebanon again in 1982, first Palestinian Intifada in 1987).

In October 1986, the Reykjavik Summit (in Iceland) between Reagan and Gorbachev resulted in the signature of the Washington Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987 (the disarmament of American Pershing and Soviet SS-20s).

Reagan's 1987 visit to Berlin

In 1987, Reagan went to Berlin; he gave a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in which he challenged the Soviet leader to "open this gate... tear down this wall!" He was continuing to put pressure on the USSR.

Gorbachev gave a speech to the UN in December 1988 (cf. the video, 1:06 to end) which shows the Soviet regime’s willingness to change radically; the USSR was now a freer society, with political, administrative and economic reforms, reduction in the size of the army and unilateral disarmament were on the agenda, and relations with Washington were better...

In 1988, Al Qaeda was set up.

In 1989, George Bush, Republican, became President of the USA (until 1993). He was careful and guarded in his foreign policy.

Berlin, a few days before the wall came down (1989)

On the 9th of November 1989, the Berlin Wall (built in 1961) came down. Bush chose to show restraint in his support of reunification of the two Germanies (so as not to provoke the nationalistic elements in Soviet Union and so undermine Gorbachev's authority).

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and, in 1991, the US successfully led a coalition, under UN mandate, to free Kuwait (Operation Desert Storm). This showed the USA has having regained its international standing (and showed up the USSR's weakness?).

In 1991, the ethnic conflicts in Yugoslavia started; they were to last ten years. The USA got involved in that war under UN mandate and, in 1999, as part of NATO forces.

TIME magazine cover, 1990

On the 25th December 1991, Gorbachev resigned; it was the end of the USSR and the end of the Cold War. Boris Yeltsin became leader (1991 to 1999) of the new Russian Federation.