Having offered an “unclenched fist” to Iran, Obama has been almost casually rebuffed. As Sarkozy put it: “What have these proposals for dialogue produced for the international community? Nothing but more enriched uranium and more centrifuges.”
In the Middle East, Obama’s popularity is sliding among both Israelis and Arabs and the prospects of meaningful peace talks are dire. Requests to Nato for more troops to train Afghan security forces have fallen largely on deaf ears. Suddenly, the US no longer feels like the indispensable nation.
For all his talk of reaching out to the world and his apologies on behalf of America, there is little that Obama has achieved. He is liked but not respected – and there are growing doubts about whether he has the backbone or the domestic political capital to deliver.
Obama is finding that foreign policy is about more than just talk and turning up to take a bow. For its part, the world is realising that the man it championed as one of its own is stumbling towards isolationism.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member