With the recent increase in terrorist activity by ISIS and global problems, President Barack Obama’s foreign policies have been under fire by many critics. Obama has laid down the 2015 National Security Strategy today in an attempt to explain his stance on foreign policy to his critics. Many have seen this New Security Strategy as the “Obama Doctrine,” or his strategic patient approach towards international issues, written in 29 pages.
In the document, President Obama calls for American leadership in global affairs as the answer to American security. “Any successful strategy to ensure the safety of the American people and advance our national security interests must begin with an undeniable truth—America must lead. Strong and sustained American leadership is essential to a rules-based international order that promotes global security and prosperity as well as the dignity and human rights of all peoples. The question is never whether America should lead, but how we lead,” he writes in the document.
According to the document, President Obama calls forth “strategic patience and persistence” and states how America must lead. America must “lead with purpose,” “lead with strength,” “lead by example,” “lead with capable partners,” “lead with all instruments of U.S. power,” and “lead with a long-term perspective.”
President Obama will seek to “end the sequestration” and work with the Congress to bolster the American military and other means of power for America. Also, President Obama will put in more effort to reduce world hunger and to relieve deaths by illnesses through sending relief such as Feed the Future and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief. It will be interesting to see how President Obama will seek to unite the Congress for collaborative effort in near future.
President Obama also wrote on the issues in Middle East and Africa where we see more of his strategic patience approach towards these regions. “Resolving these connected conflicts, and enabling long-term stability in the region, requires more than the use and presence of American military forces,” he writes.
President Obama will seek to build more allies. “For one, it requires partners who can defend themselves. We are therefore investing in the ability of Israel, Jordan, and our Gulf partners to deter aggression.”
With the allies and his strategic patient approach, President Obama seeks to put an end to the ISIS activity. “With our partners in the region and around the world, we are leading a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL.”
President Obama also mentioned his diplomatic strategy towards other nations, such as Russia/Ukraine, Iran, and Cuba, nations that historically had problems with the U.S.
There have been different reactions to President Obama’s National Security Strategy. In press statement, Secretary of State, John Kerry, said, “This National Security Strategy is a blueprint to leverage America's leadership in a more complicated world than many people would have ever imagined. It's ambitious and achievable. It's a pragmatic, clear-eyed assessment of both the challenges we face and the full arsenal of our power to confront them through moral, diplomatic, economic, development, and military tools. It's a strategy to promote our values in a world where no ocean, no fence, and no firewall can shield us from the reality of threats across the globe.”
On the other hand, there have been criticism of the National Security Strategy from members of the Republican Party who have wanted President Obama to take a more hawkish approach to international affairs.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) criticized the document and President Obama’s approach: “I doubt ISIL, the Iranian mullahs, or Vladmir Putin will be intimidated by President Obama’s strategy of ‘Strategic Patience.’”
Joo Heon Lee is a volunteer student writer from the University of California, Irvine.
