Carnegie Moscow Center
The failed attack on a U.S. airliner thirteen days ago thrust President Obama and his administration into the center of an intensified focus on domestic security. The president’s response to this new crisis has been generally strong as he balances several significant domestic challenges at the same time.
Efforts to combat terrorism largely defined the global security agenda during the past decade, when small terrorist groups, with as few as three hundred active members, were able to inflict enormous amounts of damage on regional, national, and international scales.
Despite President Obama’s upcoming participation in the Russia-U.S. summit in St. Petersburg, much of the American foreign policy community remains at odds over U.S. policy towards Moscow.
Barack Obama’s term as U.S. president is likely to signal a change in U.S.-Russian relations, with U.S. foreign policy emphasizing pragmatism over ideology.
President-elect Obama will inherit a number of foreign policy challenges from the Bush administration when he takes office. Key areas where the new administration must focus to reverse the Bush administration's failings include Afghanistan, diplomacy, unilateralism, arms control, and climate change.