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Rethinking America's International Role |
President Barack Obama took office in the midst of an economic crisis, two wars, and a broad range of transnational threats. To face these challenges, President Obama has called for a new era of domestic responsibility and a renewal of America's global leadership. The world's future prosperity and security need a strong and internationally engaged America, but strong new constraints limit America's potential to assume the kind of international role it has played for the past 60 years.
To prepare for this transition, Chatham House initiated a project on Rethinking America's International Role. This project has drawn on the expertise of senior in-house researchers and Associate Fellows to offer an outside perspective on America's future capacity for world leadership. It evaluates current US foreign policy, assesses promising areas of future US influence, and suggests specific ways for US engagement to make an impact on global and regional challenges.
Chatham House Report
The key findings of the project are summarized in a Chatham House report, Ready to Lead? Rethinking America's Role in a Changed World, written by Director Dr Robin Niblett. The report argues that America must rethink, not just renew, its approach to global leadership. It suggests that the world still needs an America that aspires to lead, but that the US will no longer be able to drive solutions to many of the world's most pressing global challenges through the force of its leadership alone. President Obama must therefore invest in a new style of leadership that is more targeted, inclusive and restrained in order to benefit both America's citizens and the world beyond its borders.
Approaching the subject from a non-American perspective, the report aims to offer a counterpoint to the extensive analysis and sets of ideas developed by institutes and individuals in the US during the recent presidential election campaign and transition to the Obama presidency. It is also designed to be an initial response from outside America to the global strategy and policy outlines of the Obama administration. The report highlights the recurring themes that have emerged in the course of the project, and draws together a series of practical policy recommendations.
Chatham House Book
America and a Changed World: A Question of Leadership, edited by Dr Robin Niblett, explores the thematic and regional issues raised by the project in greater depth including through:
- overviews of the global challenges of insurgency and counter-insurgency, energy security and environmental issues, the economic crisis, and reinforcing the international legal order;
- regional evaluations of Central Asia and the South Caucasus, Europe, Africa, East and South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East;
- country-specific analyses of Russia and China and their relationships with the US.
Further Resources
Poised for a British-US Realignment
Robin Niblett, Council on Foreign Relations, May 2010
The Obama Presidency One Year On
Robin Niblett and Bronwen Maddox, Times Online Debate, January 2010
Articles
United States Presidency: First-Year Blues
Nicolas Bouchet, The World Today, January 2010
Reassessing the Special Relationship
William Wallace and Christopher Phillips, International Affairs, March 2009
The Limits and Potential of Obama's Foreign Policy: Living Up to Expectations
Dr Robin Niblett, The World Today, January 2009
President Obama's Inauguration
Dr Robin Niblett, Experts' Comment, January 2009
Major Foreign Policy Challenges for the Next US President
Zbigniew Brzezinski, International Affairs, January 2009
The United States and Counterinsurgency: 'Political First, Political Last, Political Always'
Paul Cornish, International Affairs, January 2009
United States Presidency and Europe: Over to You, Europe
Dr Robin Niblett, The World Today, December 2008
Events
America and a Changed World
19 January 2010
Dr Paul Cornish, Head, International Security Programme, Chatham House
Dr Robin Niblett, Director, Chatham House and Editor, America and a Changed World: A Question of Leadership
James Sherr, Head, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House
Dr Claire Spencer, Head, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House
Chair: Nik Gowing, Main Presenter, BBC World News
Regaining the Initiative: Opportunities for the US Under President Obama
22 January 2009
Dr Robin Niblett
Contact
For more information about the project please contact Nina Assauer.
For more information about the publications please contact Nicolas Bouchet.
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