Abstract:
In his second and last presidency, US President Barack Obama,
conscious of his lasting legacy, has taken some bold and unprecedented
foreign policy decisions. However, like President Richard Nixon, he also
faces the daunting dilemma of rescuing the neo-liberal democratic ideals
from the overwhelming influence of traditional geopolitical and security
considerations, driving the US foreign policy for many decades. Since the
end of World War II, the US pursuit of balance of power politics in
Europe and East Asia helped stabilise these regions, but neglecting the
same in South Asia and Middle East has made these regions unstable and
prone to violent conflicts. Moreover, President Obama’s neo-liberal goals
of Nuclear Zero and the Nuclear Security Summit process,
disproportionately focus on merely managing the technological and geostrategic consequences, instead of addressing the geopolitical causes of
conflicts, rooted in the territory, resources and identity of various value
systems, exacerbated by globalisation. This paper evaluates the multiple
policy dilemmas, which will characterise President Obama’s lasting
legacy, marked by the enduring conflict between neo-liberal ideals and
neo-realist security imperatives.
