Whither to, Obama?

Democracy promotion is an issue at the heart of U. S. national identity and no U. S. president can afford to ignore or disregard it completely. Nevertheless, there has been considerable debate over how recent presidencies have addressed this issue. In this PRIF Report, Annika E. Poppe assesses Obama and his most recent predecessors, Clinton and Bush, in terms of their democracy promotion policies and examines the future prospects of such policy. She concludes that the Obama administration is more sober and pragmatic in assessing democracy promotion’s chances and seems to be pursuing a new foreign policy valuing partnership and engagement - even with authoritarian governments - over normative dogmatism and unilateralism.