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Obama Doctrine: Hindering American Foreign Policy Kim R No. 1172 Delivered September 30, 2010 November 29, 2010 The Obama Doctrine: Hindering American Foreign Policy Kim R. Holmes, Ph.D., Henry R. Nau, Ph.D., and Helle C. Dale Abstract: The President has not yet defined the Obama Doctrine but its features are emerging through his state- ments and actions. These include a growing reliance on Talking Points international organizations, a greater sense of humility about American values and foreign policy achievements, a • The emerging Obama Doctrine is focused on risk aversion, humility on the world stage, reliance on foreign aid rather than military power, among and international cooperation at all cost. other things. It is a value-neutral approach that rejects the concept of American exceptionalism. Essentially, the Pres- • President Obama considers the United States ident hopes that if every nation can be brought to the table, just one of many nations and an “equal part- ner,” while others like Russia and China play they will eventually agree. In this analysis, the world is like a game of chess to outmaneuver the United a puzzle of equally valuable pieces that can be made to fit States wherever possible. together. Unfortunately, other nations like Russia and Chi- na look at the world as if it were a game of chess and are • The President’s commitment to international treaties reflects a belief that they should con- moving swiftly to outmaneuver the United States. In the strain the U.S. in some ways and that our short term, American foreign policy is difficult to change legal system should adapt to international dramatically because there are so many nonpolitical actors norms rather than conform to such internal involved throughout the “permanent government.” The restraints as our Constitution, our history, Iraq and Afghanistan deployments have been harder to and our traditional understanding of free- wind down than President Obama foresaw, and Guantan- dom and liberty. amo Bay remains open for business. Yet with two presi- • If this doctrine continues to inform U.S. for- dential terms, much damage could be done with serious eign policy, it will do real damage to Amer- consequences for America’s ability to be a global leader. ica’s security and ability to lead in the world. HELLE C. DALE: The question before us today is This paper, in its entirety, can be found at: whether President Obama will follow in the footsteps http://report.heritage.org/hl1172 of other American Presidents and have a doctrine Produced by the Douglas and Sarah Allison attached to his name. If we think back to Ronald Center for Foreign Policy Studies of the Reagan, it was “peace through strength;” for George W. Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Bush there is identification with a freedom agenda Institute for International Studies Published by The Heritage Foundation and, of course, protecting Americans in the war on 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE terrorism. Washington, DC 20002–4999 (202) 546-4400 • heritage.org Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflect- ing the views of The Heritage Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress. No. 1172 Delivered September 30, 2010 Roughly halfway through his presidential term, U.S. officials) said that we had enough common President Barack Obama has yet to define his doc- points to describe his “doctrine.” trine. That leaves the field open for us to delve into Doctrines are evolving things. People will debate the subject. Those who study American foreign pol- what they mean; they really imply what a President icy, like our two distinguished scholars today, will believes based upon what he says and does. We find the outlines of a doctrine easier to identify as were very careful in our study to take what the Pres- time goes on. ident said seriously, rather than to say, as so often Some might object to placing labels on foreign happens among foreign policy sophisticates, “Well, policy. Does it matter what label we choose—real- he doesn’t really mean that, because you can’t take ism, pragmatism, neoconservatism, Wilsonianism? what politicians say seriously.” I believe we should Yet if you want to identify a set of principles and take seriously not only what Presidents do, but what underlying assumptions about America’s role in the they say. world, definitions are a very worthy intellectual _________________________________________ exercise. Americans looking at the President’s lead- ership style today will have to ask themselves Doctrines are evolving things. People will debate whether they feel confident about the way he is what they mean; they really imply what a Presi- dent believes based upon what he says and does. carving out the U.S. role in the world. ____________________________________________ To get us started, I will pitch some questions to both our panelists to generate a discussion. It is true that Obama’s foreign policies are not First, I would like to ask our panelists to briefly ideologically monolithic. He has continued some of discuss how they view the Obama Doctrine. It has George W. Bush’s policies regarding Guantanamo been described in different ways—as realist, or Bay, counterterrorism, intelligence gathering, and progressive, or by the President himself as simply even in some of the Afghanistan war strategy. These pragmatic. You have each published recent papers and other policies do not necessarily match up with on the Obama Doctrine.1 Is it any or all of these, the larger philosophical points he has made. Never- and how can we compare it to other presidential theless, we have found common threads which, doctrines? when weaved together, give us a discernable world view—and it is that view that I call a “doctrine.” KIM R. HOLMES: When my colleague James Carafano and I first considered publishing our Helle mentioned that, historically, we have come recent paper on the Obama Doctrine, we reviewed to identify presidencies with certain doctrines. what Barack Obama said in a number of speeches— George W. Bush had his doctrine, even though there during the campaign and in the first year of his pres- was a difference of opinion about what it actually idency—on foreign policy. The relevant remarks meant. (During the last campaign, there turned out were few and far between in that first year; there was to be three or four George Bush doctrines; people a great focus on domestic policy. Yet we started were trying to pin down what the man stood for.) detecting, even then, common themes in his remarks. We have, of course, the Reagan Doctrine supporting anti-Communist insurgencies; the Monroe Doc- It was only after the release of the National Secu- trine; and others. This is an intellectual exercise rity Strategy this year that we felt confident we with a long history, and I’m sure we will have some could match his statements with what that docu- differences of opinion about what we define; but I ment said about official national security strategy. It still think it’s a worthy exercise because at least it was only by comparing what he (and at times other tries to pin down what the President stands for. 1. Kim R. Holmes and James Jay Carafano, “Defining the Obama Doctrine, Its Pitfalls, and How to Avoid Them,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 2457, September 1, 2010, at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/08/Defining-the- Obama-Doctrine-Its-Pitfalls-and-How-to-Avoid-Them, and Henry R. Nau, “Obama’s Foreign Policy,” Policy Review (Hoover Institution), No. 160, April 1, 2010, at http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/5287. page 2 No. 1172 Delivered September 30, 2010 I see roughly four characteristics of the Presi- asserts rhetoric that is intended to distinguish him- dent’s approach that we believe define the Obama self from Bush—is that Obama, in his statements Doctrine. The first is Obama’s repeated emphasis and also in the National Security Strategy, empha- that the United States is not, as historically under- sizes the importance of international treaties. This stood, an exceptional nation, but rather an “equal includes not only the New START treaty with Rus- partner” with other countries. sia, but reviving some treaties that have been dor- I realize the first objection to that point will be mant in the U.S. Congress like the Law of the Sea that all Presidents talk about the U.S. being a part- Treaty, the Convention on the Elimination of Dis- ner. When I worked as Assistant Secretary of State crimination Against Women (CEDAW), and others. for International Organization Affairs, which _________________________________________ included the U.N. system, we used the “partner” Obama appears to have carried with him the language all the time. But here I am not talking value system of the “faculty lounge” in which about day-to-day diplomatic partnerships and bilat- American exceptionalism is equated with arro- eral relationships or partnering with this or that gance, imperialism, and other assorted evils. institution; I’m talking about the position of the ____________________________________________ country in the world and how it relates to the tradi- tional position of American leadership—not only They are being explained not just as utilitarian, through its alliances, but also its global role. but as good for the U.S. and good as part of a larger In many of the President’s statements, he seems vision that the U.S. needs to more fully engage the at the very least uncomfortable with the idea of international legal community in the United American exceptionalism, this idea that America Nations and in international conventions. The idea has a special role to play in the world and a special also appears to be that international treaties should responsibility based upon its unique history.
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