The Flaws of Obama's 'Strategic Patience'

Nikolas K. Gvosdev

Diplomacy, Security, United States

Focusing on the future does not require inaction in the present.

A common refrain among foreign policy pundits is to declare that the Obama administration has no strategy, that the president and his team are focused only on short-term, tactical approaches and that, as a result, the United States is strategically adrift in the world. This response has become more pronounced in recent months with the apparent willingness of the president to offer concessions to putative adversaries and to proffer generally symbolic responses to the efforts of revisionist powers to probe the depth of American commitment and resolve. Many Congress members (both Republicans and Democrats) are perplexed by an administration that eschews sending weaponry to Ukraine, does not respond more forcefully to Russian and Chinese moves in the Middle and Far East, normalizes relations with an unreconstructed Castro regime in Cuba and seems outmaneuvered by the Islamic Republic of Iran at the negotiating table.

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