Philosophical Pragmatism and the Pursuit of Perfection: an Intellectual History of Barack Obama’S Foreign Policy

Philosophical Pragmatism and the Pursuit of Perfection: An Intellectual History of Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy Jonathan Middleton A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of East Anglia School of History September 2020 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived therefrom must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. Abstract This thesis explores the role played by philosophical pragmatism in shaping Barack Obama’s approach to foreign policy. Extending the efforts of James Kloppenberg’s Reading Obama into the foreign policy sphere, the thesis posits that such an approach is more fruitful for understanding Obama’s foreign policy presidency than previous efforts which have tended to employ conventional IR categories to situate Obama. This is a work of intellectual history, taking seriously the notion that we can draw understanding of actors in the past through the ideas and contexts which shaped their modes of thinking. This effort will thus place key Obama-era foreign policy issues in their proper intellectual context. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars, crises in Libya and Syria, the “Pivot to Asia,” and the controversial use of drone technology in a continued counterterrorism effort will each be examined. Obama’s engagement with philosophical pragmatism will not be argued as being a Deus ex machina - that which explains all - but instead forms an explication for a mode of thought that is complex and varied, but crucially, also best captures the essence of the central Obamian effort at reconciling those same contradictions. The logic of Obama’s foreign policy will thus be found as having greater coherence at its heart than prior critiques nominally allow. Philosophical pragmatism will be examined as an imperfect vessel for Obama’s own search for perfection in America’s approach to the world. 2 Access Condition and Agreement Each deposit in UEA Digital Repository is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, and duplication or sale of all or part of any of the Data Collections is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for your research use or for educational purposes in electronic or print form. You must obtain permission from the copyright holder, usually the author, for any other use. Exceptions only apply where a deposit may be explicitly provided under a stated licence, such as a Creative Commons licence or Open Government licence. Electronic or print copies may not be offered, whether for sale or otherwise to anyone, unless explicitly stated under a Creative Commons or Open Government license. 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Joseph Wade, 1923-2019 Thank you, for everything 3 Contents Introduction Where the perfection begins ............................................................................................ 6 Chapter One Fair-minded words .......................................................................................................... 29 Chapter Two Not on reason but on passion ........................................................................................ 67 Chapter Three Those of us with the best intentions ......................................................................... 103 Chapter Four With every element of American power ..................................................................... 152 Conclusion How we have come this far ............................................................................................. 204 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 222 4 Acknowledgments I have many people to thank. Firstly, the School of History and HUM faculty who offered the faith and funding for the research to commence. David Milne has been a constant source of wisdom, advice, patience, and reassurance. I owe him a great deal and have grown immeasurably as a historian thanks to him. Similarly, Lee Marsden has played a great role in encouraging me to get this far, his advice and insights have always been greatly valued. Tori Cann, Nick Wright, Matthew Sillence, Roger Baines, and Thomas Otte each helped along the way, as did countless others across the faculty at UEA. Michael Kyriacou has been an inspiration, and a reliable source of probing philosophical discussion and constant good cheer. Meanwhile, countless hours of conversation with Jack Massie imparted upon me a great deal of his own practical wisdom. Everyone in the Floor 0 office - while not always being conducive to ‘hard work’ - together we shared an environment of kinship, mutual support, and good times. To conduct PhD research can be to plough a lone furrow. It was never so with all of them there along the way. Thanks to the History boys…even the medievalists. Thank you to my family. My parents and brother taught me above all to be a good and diligent person. They’ve always believed in me. And I owe them more than I could ever possibly express. Last, and of course most of all, thank you to Charlie. She puts up with my nonsense, and has supported me without hesitation throughout this project. The perfect research partner in life, she makes every day better and every tomorrow another adventure to come. 5 Introduction Where the perfection begins Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States riding a wave of liberal enthusiasm. He promised hope and change and, in repeating the mantra “yes we can,” offered the credo that - united across race, religion, geography, and political beliefs – America could dare again to aspire to its promised greatness. With an overwhelming sense of optimism among supporters, the ensuing presidency was primed to struggle to attain the lofty heights of those expectations. It was also a presidency set to raise the hackles of those not so enamoured with him. Republicans opposed him en masse, almost reflexively. The party’s leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, ultimately declaring in 2010 “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one- term president.”1 Obama’s agenda often infuriated those on his right for being too progressive, an affront to American values. Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer warned his audience of “an ambitious president” who intended “to enact the most radical agenda of social transformation seen in our lifetime.”2 While another, Jennifer Rubin, suggested that Obama’s legislative programme “would permanently refashion the role of the federal government in the lives of every American.”3 Theirs was a fear of a President untethered in the pursuit of big government. Simultaneously, he disappointed those on his left as being insufficiently radical, failing to grasp the mantle and take grand enough steps in that progressive direction, while too often kowtowing to the demands of moneyed interests. Upon entering the White House, Obama immediately confronted a challenging set of circumstances. A failure of the financial system threatened the biggest economic downturn since the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and portended a twenty-first century Great Depression. Combined with expensive wars and George W. Bush’s tax cuts, the financial crisis served to heighten the problem of an ever expanding fiscal deficit. Meanwhile an ideologically polarised polity was incubating ever more hostile attitudes across party lines. Ideological zeal and purity had steadily replaced bipartisan concerns. Obama had famously declared that there was “not a liberal America and a conservative America; 1 A. Barr, "The Gop's No-Compromise Pledge," Politico 28 October (2010), https://www.politico.com/story/2010/10/the-gops-no-compromise-pledge-044311. 2 J. Chait, Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail (New York: Custom House, 2017). 3 Ibid. p. xii 6 there's the United States of America.”4 The America he became president of, however, failed to resemble such a vision. Obama faced similar difficulties in global affairs, entering the West Wing with the millstone of two Bush era wars as well as an expansive war on terrorism around his neck. The situation was made worse by a sense that the foreign policy misadventures of his predecessor had dragged America’s reputation through the mud and left it in the bad graces of much of an on-looking world. The enthusiasm which met Obama’s election globally was born of hostility to George W. Bush and, a growing fascination with a man whose Kansan mother, Kenyan father, and Hawaiian childhood (alongside four years in Indonesia), demonstrated that an American president could be cosmopolitan and broad-minded. In his own words, he was a “citizen of the world.”5 David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, suggested that “if George W. Bush’s foreign policy was largely a reaction to 9/11, Obama’s has been a reaction

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