Leid Stories - 03.25.15

Doubling Up, Doubling Down: Obama Wrestles with Foreign Policy Criticisms

In the wake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Republican-assisted crash landing in Congress on March 3 to hector the United States into scuttling international negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, President Obama finds himself the target of renewed, and even more scathing, criticisms of his foreign policies, especially in “hot spot” regions of the world.

Obama’s critics, mostly right-far right and hawkish, say his administration’s aimless, ill-defined foreign policies are the chief reason the United States’ stature in the world community of nations is severely diminished. Moreover, they say, the administration’s miscalculations and inaction on critical global developments—specifically, the rise of ISIS—have contributed to the dramatic escalation of these crises.

Diplomatic scholar, historian, attorney and prolific author Dr. Gerald Horne discusses Obama’s foreign policy approaches in several global “hot spots” within the context of longstanding criticisms of his administration’s policies.  

Horne is the John J. and Rebecca Moores chair of history and African American studies at the University of Houston. He also teaches graduate courses in diplomatic history. He has written more than 30 books, and more than 100 scholarly papers and reviews, on struggles against imperialism, colonialism, fascism and racism.