Pretty good, says Matthew Yglesias.
Pretty bad, says The New Republic.
I hate to say it, but TNR's argument sounds more convincing. But I haven't been following foreign policy very closely since January 2009, so I don't have a strong opinion. What do you think?
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
How good has Obama's foreign policy been?
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I think he's done best in South America. Honduras was a flub, but he has been friendly with Columbia, which I give him credit for. He's tried being nice to people who like to complain about the US and found they don't care what he does, they're going to demonize him anyway. He would do well to apply this lesson elsewhere.
His European strategy seems stuck in the Cold War--for some reason he's trying to appease Russia. 20 years ago I would have thought this dangerous, now I find it ridiculous. In the rest of Europe he's managed to damage relations with Eastern Europe, France, and Great Britain to no positive effect. Perhaps he got an arms reduction treaty out of it with Russia, but again, who cares?
As far as the Middle East goes, he's basically followed Bush's policy in every country with the exception of Israel, which is completely against what he ran for. Is this a victory?
East Asia has been his worst area. The color of his skin doesn't help and his failure to even try to understand the culture has made him look like a fool again and again.
Supposidly our country is very rich; so rich that it could afford to have a leader who isn't very interested in learning, learn on the job. I guess electing Obama is proof of our own arogance. But really, as far as foreign relations go, having Obama as president has been like having no president at all.
This is my opinion, since I was asked.
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