Bogged down in his first term by the economy, health care, and budget fights, Obama may have hoped that his second term would offer a chance to win back a skeptical world. By the middle of last year, a survey of global opinion released by the Pew Research Center in June found that views of America and Obama’s policies had declined since 2009. A March Gallup poll found that, while America’s standing abroad had improved since George W. Bush left office, opinions of Obama’s America had dimmed. “This shift suggests that the president and the new secretary of state may not find global audiences as receptive to the U.S. agenda as they have in the past. In fact, they may find even once-warm audiences increasingly critical,” concluded Gallup’s Julie Ray. (Even in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the most pro-America regions of the world, pro-U.S. opinion has slipped.)

But turning around world opinion has been severely complicated in recent weeks. Snowden’s leaks about U.S. surveillance, spying and hacking activities revived the image of an arrogant post-9/11 America that acts without regard for the law, and forced Obama to publicly protest that he is no Dick Cheney. In a pungent expression of leftist European sentiment a socialist member of Ireland’s parliament recently branded Obama a hypocrite and a “war criminal.” The United Nations has launched an inquiry into the legality of Obama’s campaign of drone strikes against suspected terrorists, which has further inflamed the Muslim world. The ongoing hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp—and the force-feeding of Gitmo inmates—has drawn protests from human rights groups and medical professionals.