When Barack Obama run for office in 2008, he was often criticized and even ridiculed for his foreign policy deficit. I can still hear Clinton’s voice blurting out loudly in one of her biting criticisms of Obama right after the Iowa caucuses back in 2008: “… voters will judge whether living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges …” Others said an Obama presidency will mean choosing a president to train on the job.
It’s going to take a while to realize the full implications of Obama’s external decisions but on face value Mr. Obama seems to be having the last laugh. For all their hawkish neo-conservative rhetoric it took a democratic president who was mocked as a foreign policy neophyte to accomplish something which remained elusive even for the likes of Reagan, Bush (I&II) and Cheney. In that cold mid-winter morning when Obama took his oath of office, not even the most far sighted of the political cognoscenti could prognosticate on Osama’s demise or Libya without Qadhafi.
That Obama has aced his foreign policy tests is no longer a matter of debate. Come the next election cycle, it’s going to be hard for anyone to run against such a high scoring record. Obama’s string of accomplishments shows that Americans have nothing to lose by working with the rest of the world as equal partners. It is a triumph of internationalism over exceptionalism, multilateralism over unilateralism and nationalism over imperialism. The great hope among many nations around the world was that an Obama presidency will restore America’s image around the world. For now, it appears such hope was not unfounded.
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