AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS THE MIDDLE EAST: AN APPRAISAL OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S ADMINISTRATION

A Research paper presented by
Asiegbu, Tochukwu. E

INTRODUCTION


With the creation of state of Israel in 1948, and ensuing attempts by the Arab world to end the existence of that state, United States successive governments have formulated policies that could be regarded as unfair and unjust in the eyes of Arab world which is prompted by US continued support for Israel as its strongest ally in that region. As a result of this, the foreign policies of United States towards the Middle East have received much criticism and viewed with great suspicion among Arab countries of the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. President Barack Obama’s powerful speech in Cairo University which addressed the Middle East crises from a different, but favorable dimension to the Arab world has also been received with mixed feelings as a result of implementation problems that may surround it.
The anniversary of the Cairo University address occasioned numerous and frequently contradictory appraisals of how Obama has measured up to his stated hopes and intentions. Some observed that he is proving to be little more than an ephemeral "phenomenon" in American politics -- chiefly a speech phenomenon. Others remarked that he is a talented actor capable of donning many masks.
This paper will try to examine whether Obama’s administration has actually addressed the Middle East crises in fair manner as his Cairo speech promised after more than a year in office


FOREIGN POLICY DEFINED

Foreign policy has been defined in various ways by different scholars, states and non state actors in International relations. As a result of its sensitive nature in the relations among different actors in the international scene, thousands of definitions abound.
According to Gab Ezeukwu, “all foreign policies denote a pattern of values expressed through government authoritative statements to give the home citizens and members of the international system a sense of the goals, objectives, hopes and aspirations of the issuing country in its relations with other countries”. 1 In the words of Goldstein, “foreign policies spell out the objectives state leaders have decided to pursue in a given relationship or situation as well as the general means by which they intend to pursue those objectives” 2 According to Wikipedia, “foreign policy consists of strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals in international relations” 3 Lawrence Wright views foreign policy as “the totality of a state’s relations with, and polices toward other states”. 4 Hartman describes foreign policy as “a systematic statement of deliberately selected national interest” 5 Norman Hill observes that it is the content or substance of a nation’s efforts to promote its interests vis-a-vis other nations. 6 Ruthnaswany defines it “as the bundle of principles and practices that regulate the intercourse of a state with other states”. 7 George Modelski maintains that foreign policy is the systematic activities evolved by communities for changing the behaviour of other states and for adjusting their own activities to the environment”.8 According to C.C Rodee et al, “foreign policy involves the formulation and implementation of a group of principles which shape the behaviour pattern of a state while negotiating with other states to protect or further its vital interest.” 9 Other scholars defined foreign policy based on their understanding of its nature, but this paper will be restricted to the above stated definitions.

MIDDLE EAST AND US FOREIGN POLICY
The United States has long term national interests and vital engagements across the Arab World and with Israel and Iran. As a result of this long term national interest that US government has in this region, successive administrations have formulated policies that border on the protection of their interests which includes their continued support for the state of Israel as its major ally in that region. For most of the 20th century and now into the 21st, the U.S. has had global interests and a global reach to match. In the Middle East, the U.S. has made itself a key player by using its diplomatic, economic, and military power in support of its national interests. United States have had a long history with the Middle East which took a new dimension in the late 1940s prior to the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948.
When the UN took up the question of Palestine, President Harry Truman explicitly said the United States should not "use threats or improper pressure of any kind on other delegations. According to Mitchell Bard, “Some pressure was nevertheless exerted and the U.S. played a key role in securing support for the partition resolution”. 10 Many members of the Truman Administration opposed partition, including Defense Secretary James Forrestal, who believed Zionist aims posed a threat to American oil supplies and its strategic position in the region. Mitchell Bard also observed that he Joint Chiefs of Staff worried that the Arabs might align themselves with the Soviets if they were alienated by the West. These internal opponents did a great deal to undermine U.S. support for the establishment of a Jewish state. 11
According to Robert Trice, “in 1953, CIA helped Iran's military stage a coup, deposing elected PM Mohammad Mossadeq, whom US sees as communist threat”. 12 US aided the installation of Shah Mohammad Reza Pavlavi as ruler of Iran. In 1966, US sold its first jet bombers to Israel, breaking with a 1956 decision not to sell arms to the Jewish state.
David Schoenbaum recorded that in 1976, the UN voted on a resolution accusing Israel of war crimes in occupied Arab territories. US casts lone "no" vote. 13 In 1978, Egypt and Israel signed US-brokered Camp David peace treaty. Eighteen Arab countries imposed an economic boycott on Egypt. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin received Nobel Peace Prize. In 1979 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led grass-roots Islamic revolution in Iran, deriding the US as "the great Satan." Iranian students storm US Embassy in Tehran, taking 66 Americans hostage for 15 months. US imposed sanctions. Protesters attacked US Embassies in Libya and Pakistan.
The foreign policies of the United States towards the Middle East have continued to increase the conflicts of that region even till date. The promises made by the current US president (Barack Obama) in his speech at Cairo University meant to address the Arab world have not had the full strengths of reducing the tension in the Middle East.
At this point, this paper will analyze the relations between the US government and the Middle East using two administrations in recent times in order to observe the nature of the foreign policy of the United States towards the Middle East.
U.S. FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS THE MIDDLE EAST IN CLINTON'S ADMINISTRATION
Robert O. Freedman recorded that While U.S. President Bill Clinton achieved a number of successes in his Middle East policy during his first term in office -- most noticeably the Oslo peace agreement between Israel and the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) that was signed on the White House lawn in September 1993 -- during his second term U.S. Middle East policy has proved much more problematic.14 He also observed that not only has the Oslo peace process run into serious difficulty, but the U.S. "dual containment" policy toward Iran and Iraq which he inherited from the Bush Administration and then intensified during his first term, had also come close to collapse. 15
In September 1995, despite a series of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, Rabin and Arafat signed the Oslo II agreement that turned over the major Palestinian cities of the West Bank (except for Hebron) to Palestinian rule, a process that was completed by January 1996 and accompanied by elections for a Palestinian Parliament and Palestinian Executive, the latter won, to no one's surprise, by Arafat. Gerald Baker noted that As the peace process developed between 1993 and 1995, the U.S. took the lead in fostering multilateral working groups bringing representatives from Israel and 13 Arab countries, along with 30 countries from outside the Arab world to deal with problems that cut across the region as a whole, such as water, the environment, the refugee issue, and arms control and security. 16
In September 1997, after appearing to withdraw from the Middle East peace effort, the U.S. again intervened, this time with the peace process on the verge of total collapse after the two Hamas bombings. The then U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who had been sworn in on January 23, 1997 but had not yet made an official visit to the Middle East, came to Israel in an effort to jump-start the stalled peace process. She appealed to Arafat to take unilateral action to root out the terrorist infrastructure, and called on Netanyahu for a "time-out" in settlement construction in the occupied territories, a plea Netanyahu rejected. Thomas Lippman pointed out that Netanyahu's ties to the Republicans in Congress, and to their allies on the religious right of the American political spectrum (such as Jerry Falwell whose Liberty University students regularly make pilgrimages to Israel helped insulate the Israeli leader from U.S. pressure, a process that would continue into 1998 as a weakened Clinton got bogged down in the Lewinsky scandal. 17
Clinton’s policies in the Middle East failed to establish a lasting peace in the region as the crises aggravated during and after he left office as the president of the United States. Thomas Lippman sums it up in this manner, “In sum, despite some small and perhaps transitory successes like the Wye agreement, American policy toward the Middle East during the first two years of President Clinton's second term has been a highly problematic one”.18

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH AND THE MIDDLE EAST
No president in American history has had as undistinguished a record as George W. Bush in the Middle East. From Afghanistan to the Maghreb, he leaves a region more unstable and more belligerent toward the United States than when he took office.
According to Pierre Tristam , “In the early months of the Bush administration, Bush's only Middle East concern was Saddam Hussein and his alleged weapons of mass destruction”.19 Following 9/11 incident, Bush asked members of his administration to find any link between 9/11 and Saddam. None were found. Still, Bush pressed on with a two-front strategy: Uprooting al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, and removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Under the pretext of ridding Iraq of Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction, Bush launched an attack against Iraq. In the end, US government failed to provide the weapons they claimed Iraq was in possession of.
Bush ordered an attack on Afghanistan's Taliban regime on Oct. 7, 2001. By early December, U.S.-backed Afghan forces had reclaimed the country's major cities. But U.S. and Afghan forces bogged down in the Afghan mountains around Tora Bora, near the Pakistani border. Osama bin Laden escaped to Pakistan, along with thousands of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters
In the case of Iran, in 2001, Iran supported the Bush administration in fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, but later became an enemy of the bush administration a year later. In line with this assertion, Lesley J recorded that Iran provided tactical and intelligence support to the American effort in Afghanistan (Iran opposed the Taliban and al-Qaeda). And it made back-channel offers to resume diplomatic relations. 20 Bush answered in his 2002 State of the Union address by including Iran in the "Axis of Evil," with North Korea and Iraq. Iran rapidly radicalized again, and in 2005 elected the belligerently tempered Mahmoud Ahmadinejad president. This is one of the reasons why the Arab world finds it difficult to thrust any American president even when they have been promised so much by the current administration of Barack Obama.

AN APPRAISAL OF BARACK OBAMA’S FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS THE MIDDLE EAST
Barack Hussein Obama born on born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as the junior United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in November 2008. He was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday January 20, 2009.
After Obama was sworn in on January 20, 2009, he made a lot of promises that if implemented would have brought a positive change in world politics. These promises were made through his inaugural speech and the speech he made at Cairo University addressing the Muslim world on June 4, 2009 titled “A New Beginning”
More than a year into his administration, the promises made in the aforementioned speeches are yet to be fully implemented, just as Brian Whitmore noted, “one year after taking the oath of office, U.S. President Barack Obama still hasn't changed the world”. 21
Obama has promised change, both on the national and international fronts, but how will that translate in his future foreign policy, especially in the Middle East where US image has particularly suffered? While we can expect his administration to do many things differently, its take on other issues should be sensibly the same as before. In line with the above assertion, Robert Kagan asserted that in American foreign policy, there is more continuity than discontinuity in the policies of each successive administration. President Obama has added nearly 60,000 troops to the fight in Afghanistan – a policy that Kagan speculated President Bush would have pursued if he was in office for a third term – and has largely kept to the parameters of Bush’s withdrawal timeline for Iraq. 22 He also added that;
Obama has notably increased the use of Predator
drone attacks against terrorists and militants
in Afghanistan, with more strikes in 2009 than the
previous five years combined. 23
Obama's speech called for improved mutual understanding and relations between the Islamic world and the West and said both should do more to confront violent extremism. However, Israeli government has continued to build Jewish settlements in the occupied territories of Palestine, and Obama’s administration could do little or nothing to stop that. Just as Vincent Gagnon recorded, “Over Palestine, the US president has failed to press Israel to “freeze” settlement-building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and thus pave the way to a resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians” 24
Obama has promised a prompt and honorable exit from Iraq with the complete withdrawal of combat troops by summer of 2010, but this is not the case because withdrawal of troops from Iraq has become a more prolonged process, and subject to doubts over the status of the American troops due to remain there until December 2011.
Barack Obama faces two challenges. The first, and largest, is to translate rhetoric and well-intentioned statements on major issues into real politics and action. More than a year into his presidency the balance-sheet is mixed, and frustration is gathering. The second challenge facing Obama with regard to the Muslim world, and Islamists in particular, concerns “democracy-promotion” In line with this, Brian Whitmore noted that Islamists and other opposition forces in the Arab world were dismayed at Obama’s neglect in his Cairo speech of the issue of democratization (and more broadly reform) in Egypt. 25
The engagement with Iran on the nuclear issue has been difficult and contentious, narrowing Obama’s choices and perhaps rendering the entire “dialogue and engagement” approach obsolete. In the same vein, Robert Kagan recorded, “Iranian regime continues to thumb its nose at the international community, defiantly pursuing a nuclear program and viciously suppressing its opponents” 26
Peace between Israel and the Palestinians seems as distant as ever. Insurgent violence has worsened in Afghanistan, and spilled into neighboring Pakistan. Al-Qaeda continues to plot attacks against the United States and its allies.
Although it may not be totally right to judge any administration after a year of existence, Obama’s case is different because his inaugural speech and that of Cairo University made the world to look up to his administration with so much enthusiasm and expectation, just like Nikolas Gvosdev observed, "It's hard to point to any big successes or failures, because he has [only] started things. He's started processes that haven't worked themselves out yet." 27
What Obama has managed to accomplish, analysts say, is improving the tenor and tone of international relations, lowering the global political temperature, and dramatically reviving the United States' image in the world. These are all developments, the White House hopes that will pay dividends down the road.


CONCLUSION
After Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, he made a wonderful inaugural speech that aroused the interest and anxiety of the world. His later speech at Cairo University on June 4, 2009 raised the hopes of Arab countries of the Middle East who thought that their saviour has finally come to their rescue from the hands of Israel, but more than a year into his administration, the crises situation in Middle East is far from being resolved.
The heady optimism that Obama's inauguration inspired in the United States and much of the world is already a distant memory. So as Obama continues with his second year in office, the lingering question is whether the fading glow of Obama's electrifying win will be replaced by a less dynamic, but more lasting, change in global politics.












REFERENCES
1 Gab Ezeukwu, Understanding International Relations, (Anambra: CPA & Gold Publishers, 1998). P 40.
J.S Goldstein International Relations (5th edition), (Washington, DC: American University, 2004). P 155.
3 Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, www.wikipedia.com May15, 2007.
4 Lawrence Wright “What Is Foreign Policy”, about.com, September 17, 2009.
5 Hartman In Prakash Chandra International Relations, (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House PVT ltd, 1983). P 1.
7 Ruthnaswany In Prakash Chandra, Ibid.
8 George Modelski In Prakash Chandra, Ibid.
9 C C Rodee et al in Prakash Chandra, Ibid.
10 Mitchell Bard, “Foreign Relations of the United States”, wikipedia.com, March 14, 1991
11 ibid
12 Robert Trice, "Domestic Political Interests and American Policy in the Middle East” about.com, May 12, 2010
13 David Schoenbaum, "The United States and the Birth of Israel," Wiener Library Bulletin, (1978), p. 144n.
14 Robert O. Freedman “U.S. Policy Toward The Middle East In Clinton's Second
Term “ ezinearticles.com March 1999.
15 Ibid

16 Gerald Baker, "Cynical view from Clinton opponents," Financial Times, December 17, 1998.

17 Thomas Lippman, "Two options for U.S. policy," Washington Post, December 24, 1998.

18 Ibid.
19 Pierre Tristam “President George W. Bush and the Middle East: What Went Wrong” about.com, April 4, 2010.
20 Lesley J. Remarks by the President on Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation February 11, 2004.
21 Brian Whitmore “Nudging The World: Obama's Foreign Policy, One Year On”, articlebase.com, January 20, 2010.
22 Robert Kagan, “The Obama Administration's Foreign Policy Concepts:
An Appraisal at One Year”, wikipedia.com, January 28, 2010.
23 Ibid.
24 Vincent Gagnon-Lefebvre, “Obama's Middle East Foreign Policy” about.com, March 2, 2010.
25 Brian Whitmore op cit
26 Robert Kagan, op cit.
27 Nikolas Gvosdev, “Did The World Get What It Wanted”, wikipedia.com, June 5, 2010.