I’ve read a few articles recently that discussed President Obama’s new foreign policy principles. He has committed himself to working with other countries in carrying out international objectives. This is supposed to be a change from the George W. Bush era when the United States acted in a unilateral fashion.
Frankly, I’ve read the articles, but I don’t really get it. President Obama has said that the United States would continue to act in its own best interests–no change there. And for all the talk about what a cowboy W. was, he built a coalition to go into both Afghanistan and Iraq that included Britain, Spain, Italy, and dozens of other countries.
According to the Bush Doctrine, the United States would strike first if it was believed that the US was faced with an imminent threat. Our current President has never endorsed the Bush Doctrine, but certainly if trouble was coming he wouldn’t give our enemy a free shot at us.
As far as acting unilaterally goes, Bush got help when he could, but he made it clear that the US would not be paralyzed without it. I’m sure if the US was in a pickle today, and other countries wouldn’t help us, our current President wouldn’t just surrender.
I’m sure that as we move forward the Obama administration will operate differently than the Bush administration when it comes to foreign policy. I’m just not sure that saying we want other nations to cooperate with us is that revolutionary.