Strategic Assessment

Few American presidents in recent years have taken office with such an ambitious Middle Eastern agenda as did Barack Obama in early 2009. Overall, Obama’s outreach has yielded decidedly modest results: while US forces have exited Iraq, stability there as well as in Afghanistan is far from assured; Iran continues to proceed toward a nuclear capability; and the Israelis and Palestinians are no closer to concluding a peace agreement. Moreover, the concerted effort to rebrand America among Arabs and Muslims has had little success. However, Obama’s seeming inability to make serious headway on the subjects of material concern to him in the Middle East is less a function of any fundamental misunderstanding of the world and a propensity to rely on soft power, and more the intrinsic limits of American power.