Retrenchment and Obama Iraq Policy

Abstract

New occupants of the oval office tend usually to be distinct in how they conduct foreign policy and President Obama is no exception. In this regard, Obama came to office largely because he promised to depart from his predecessor’s unilateral and militaristic approach and to follow a more multilateral and restrained foreign policy. On the international stage, and in the Middle East more specifically, the Obama administration adopted a retrenchment approach that sought to cut back costly security commitments and avoided deeper involvement in emerging regional crises. When such crises called for American action, the instruments of choice for this administration ranged from multilateral sanctions, diplomacy and the reliance on regional allies to share in the burden of security. Nowhere was such approach more evident than in Iraq. This paper argues that President Obama adopted a retrenchment approach to his Iraq policy not only from commitments made by his predecessor, but also form commitments made by his administration at the beginning of his presidency.