The Long Game: How Obama Defied Washington and Redefined America's Role in the World

The titular "long game" refers to President Barack Obama's foreign policy, one based on prudently and strategically taking into account eight criteria (balance, sustainability, restraint, precision, patience, fallibility, skepticism, and exceptionalism) in order to make thoughtful relationship-repairing decisions for the United States in the world political arena. Who better to comprehend fully the president's tactics than Chollet (The Road to the Dayton Accords: A Study of American Statecraft), who has held high-level positions in Obama's administration, including jobs at the White House, the U.S. State Department, and the Pentagon. While many criticize Obama's foreign policy as being weak, Chollet argues that the long game is about using America's power and tools "to bring countries together to shape outcomes, set agendas, and address these problems in a sustainable way." In a world of sound bites, one of the greatest challenges has been about overcoming snap judgments and ongoing combativeness from conservative opponents and insisting on adhering to the content within the long game policy tenets.