Obama’s Foreign Policy Receives Praise

David Streeter — October 8, 2009 – 4:08 pm | Foreign Policy | Iran | Israel | Obama Comments (0) Add a comment

President Barack Obama’s foreign policy decisions have received significant praise over the past few days.

In regards to the recent developments with Iran, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright told The Christian Science Monitor:

I think any progress has to be attributed to Obama’s overall strategy. The speech he gave recently to the General Assembly at the UN established an important context. He called for global cooperation on a variety of issues – including Iran – and said if you don’t like American unilateralism you have to help. Then, when he chaired the Security Council, he gathered a consensus on nonproliferation and for a push back against Iran.

The Washington Post’s David Ignatius writes:

Reviewing Barack Obama’s major speeches, I do find one theme that he returns to again and again. To take the version that the president used in his inaugural address: ‘What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility.’ This involves a reciprocal exchange—‘mutual interest and mutual respect’ is how Obama put it that cold day in January, and he has returned often to that formulation. This idea—of balancing rights and responsibilities—strikes me as a central pillar of Obama’s foreign policy.

Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria writes in The Washington Post:

Obama’s approach has already produced remarkable results. Russia and China, after long opposition, agreed last week to a toughening of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In a striking shift, Russia signaled that it may support tougher sanctions against Iran. The Obama administration’s decision to cultivate a relationship with both countries, to listen to their concerns, is paying off.

And Dr. Steven L. Spiegel of the University of California-Los Angeles published an article in the Los Angles Jewish Journal that praises his approach and bluntly concludes:

The facts speak for themselves. Anyone concerned with Israel’s survival as a Jewish state should stop criticizing Obama’s policies.

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