The Obama Doctrine: American Grand Strategy Today

Dueck (foreign policy & intl. relations, George Mason Univ.; Hard Line: The Republican Party and U.S. Foreign Policy since World War II) aims to define Obama's grand strategy as U.S. president. A grand strategy refers to the cohesive and coherent framework of decision making that the president uses for foreign policy. Dueck criticizes Obama's retrenchment on many international issues and argues that much of the president's foreign policy has been deliberately vague, in large part in order to focus on domestic issues, and has resulted in other players on the world stage perceiving the United States as weak. The author not only defines and assesses Obama's grand strategy critically but also looks ahead to the 2016 election, suggesting several Republican approaches to foreign policy. He introduces his own concept of what he thinks will work, calling it conservative American realism.