The New Yorker Reports On Obama’s Foreign Policy: ‘Leading From Behind’

In an analysis of the evolution of President Obama‘s foreign policy, specifically in Libya, The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza suggests the uprisings and revolution that have swept the Middle East in 2011 may ultimately lead to a new “Obama Doctrine,” though one that may not look great on a bumper sticker. “One of his advisers described the President’s actions in Libya as ‘leading from behind.’ That’s not a slogan designed for signs at the 2012 Democratic Convention, but it does accurately describe the balance that Obama now seems to be finding.”

In Lizza’s story, How the Arab Spring Remade Obama’s Foreign Policy, Lizza reviews the president’s thinking from Illinois state senator to the U.S. Senate, through the presidential campaign and into the White House. “The one consistent thread running through most of Obama’s decisions has been that America must act humbly in the world.”

And yet, as Lizza points out, the president has been reluctant to incorporate a doctrine that would apply to all of his foreign policy decisions, which has led some supporters to become frustrated–including Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s national-security adviser:

“I greatly admire his insights and understanding. I don’t think he really has a policy that’s implementing those insights and understandings. The rhetoric is always terribly imperative and categorical: ‘You must do this,’ ‘He must do that,’ ‘This is unacceptable.’ ” Brzezinski added, “He doesn’t strategize. He sermonizes.”

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