Does Obama Have a Grand Strategy: Why We Need Doctrines in Uncertain Times
![handle is hein.journals/fora90 and id is 641 raw text is: Does Obama Have a
Grand Strategy?
Why We Need Doctrines in Uncertain Times
Daniel W Drezner
AS THE U.S. military intervenes in Libya, a fierce debate has erupted
over the possible existence of an Obama doctrine, with a chorus of
foreign policy observers bemoaning the United States' supposed
strategic incompetence. Last fall, the columnist Jackson Diehl wrote
in The Washington Post, This administration is notable for its lack of
grand strategy-or strategists. In The National Interest this January,
the political scientist John Mearsheimer concluded, The root cause
of America's troubles is that it adopted a flawed grand strategy after
the Cold War. The economic historian Niall Ferguson took to
Newsweek to argue that alleged U.S. setbacks in the Middle East were
the predictable consequence of the Obama administration's lack of
any kind of a coherent grand strategy, a deficit about which more than
a few veterans of U.S. foreign policymaking have long worried. Even
the administration's defenders have damned it with faint praise. The
NationalJournal's Michael Hirsh argued that the real Obama doctrine
is to have no doctrine at all. And that's the way it's likely to remain.
Hirsh, at least, meant it as a compliment.
But is it true that President Barack Obama has no grand strategy?
And even ifit were, would that be such a disaster? The George W. Bush
DANIEL W. DREZNER is Professor of International Politics at the
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the editor
ofAvoiding Trivia: The Role of Strategic Planning in American Foreign Policy.
157]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/fora90&div=65&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Does Obama Have a Grand Strategy: Why We Need Doctrines in Uncertain Times
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most