Godfrey Hodgson: America and the Arab Revolts
[Godfrey Hodgson was director of the Reuters' Foundation Programme at Oxford University, and before that the Observer's correspondent in the United States and foreign editor of the Independent. Among his books are A Great and Godly Adventure: The Pilgrims and the Myth of the First Thanksgiving (PublicAffairs, 2007) and The Myth of American Exceptionalism (Yale University Press, 2009)]
The momentous protests in the Arab region, and especially Libya, present the Barack Obama administration with a serious foreign-policy test. The conflict in this part of north Africa is the first major new overseas challenge since the president took office in January 2009. The way he handles it is then bound to have important consequences, for Obama’s political future and the US’s geopolitical position alike.
The complex issues of grand strategy he has earlier faced include how to deal with Iran (in relation both to Tehran’s nuclear plans, and to the crisis following the stolen election of June 2009); the Israel-Palestinian conflict; and the situations he inherited over Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2009-10, President Obama fulfilled his campaign pledge to withdraw the majority of its forces from Iraq in a way that left the United States both with some power over Iraq’s political future and some exposure to the consequences of the Iraqi government’s failures. In Afghanistan, he continued the existing policy, then doubled its stake by increasing US troop deployments.
None of these problems has been solved, all can prove combustible at short notice. Together and singly, they pose serious geopolitical questions about the US’s role in the world at a time of straitened economic circumstances. Now the turmoil in the middle east - most violently in Libya - poses Washington a further question that is starting to reveal uncomfortable truths about the limits of American power....
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The momentous protests in the Arab region, and especially Libya, present the Barack Obama administration with a serious foreign-policy test. The conflict in this part of north Africa is the first major new overseas challenge since the president took office in January 2009. The way he handles it is then bound to have important consequences, for Obama’s political future and the US’s geopolitical position alike.
The complex issues of grand strategy he has earlier faced include how to deal with Iran (in relation both to Tehran’s nuclear plans, and to the crisis following the stolen election of June 2009); the Israel-Palestinian conflict; and the situations he inherited over Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2009-10, President Obama fulfilled his campaign pledge to withdraw the majority of its forces from Iraq in a way that left the United States both with some power over Iraq’s political future and some exposure to the consequences of the Iraqi government’s failures. In Afghanistan, he continued the existing policy, then doubled its stake by increasing US troop deployments.
None of these problems has been solved, all can prove combustible at short notice. Together and singly, they pose serious geopolitical questions about the US’s role in the world at a time of straitened economic circumstances. Now the turmoil in the middle east - most violently in Libya - poses Washington a further question that is starting to reveal uncomfortable truths about the limits of American power....