President Obama relegated the foreign policy section of his first State of the Union address to the fourth quarter of the speech. There were some worthwhile elements – he made a strong statement about his commitment to fighting “terrorists who threaten our nation.” However, on both Afghanistan and Iraq, issues where the president has shown some fortitude, he portrayed both as wars he is in the process of ending.
The bulk of his six or so paragraphs on foreign policy and national security was focused on the foreign policy agenda item he is perhaps most passionate about – nuclear disarmament. He tried to argue that his efforts to negotiate a new arms control agreement with Russia may somehow help lure North Korea back into the nuclear nonproliferation regime and keep Iran from breaking out of it. This is, of course, mere fantasy, but his actions on these nuclear challenges this year will perhaps shape the success or failure of the Obama administration’s foreign policy record just as much as what happens in Afghanistan.
