Would you agree or disagree with the following statement: Foreign policy under President Obama represents a major departure from the foreign policy of the Bush years.
In this op-ed in The Washington Post, Robert Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, questions whether President Obama’s foreign policy initiatives have been the dramatic departure everyone expected them to be. He cites several examples of policies that have been hailed as major changes and notes that they can also be seen as logical continuations of policies put in place during the Bush years. Kagan laments that the Obama foreign policy team seems to be backing away from the promotion of democracy many consider to be one of the hallmarks of the Bush foreign policy. In considering this notion he questions the validity of that popular perception, suggesting that Bush did not promote democracy to the extent that most believe, and warning that Obama runs the risk of continuing the very same policy. What do you think, is this the change we can believe in?
