Donald Trump Should Take a Cue from 'No-Drama Obama'

Michael O'Hanlon

Politics, Americas

More confrontational strategies could easily do more harm than good.

On the 2016 presidential campaign trail, President Barack Obama’s foreign policy came under severe criticism from multiple quarters. He was accused of being soft on China, giving a green light to Putin’s adventures in Ukraine and Syria, negotiating a poor nuclear deal with Iran, floundering in the Middle East in general. Philosophically, he was said not to understand American exceptionalism, to apologize excessively for the past mistakes of the United States, and to go wobbly in the use of force.

Some changes are overdue, it is true. On Syria, Libya and North Korea, in particular, the United States and its partners have been struggling mightily in their efforts to address terrorism, civil war and nuclear dangers.

But on dealing with the two most powerful and potentially threatening countries of all, Russia and China, President Obama leaves his successor with a much stronger strategic foundation than is commonly perceived. “No-drama Obama,” as he was nicknamed early in his presidency, had more wisdom about the virtues of patient, firm, yet quiet and non-escalatory ways of handling a resurgent Russia and a rising China than most other American politicians or strategists. It is important that his successor, and the new Congress, think twice before rushing to replace such approaches with much more muscular and confrontational strategies that could easily do more harm than good.

Russia and China are far from saintly; President Vladimir Putin in particular is petulant and ruthless. But the recent transgressions of these two great nations are relatively modest by the standards of revanchist powers throughout history. Russia has snatched parts of Ukraine and Georgia, and intervened in Syria. But the land grabs were modest in scale, and the Russian move into Syria occurred only after the United States and its allies had floundered there for more than four years. For its part, China has reclaimed three thousand acres of what were previously sandbars and small islands in the international waterways of the South China Sea, while positioning the occasional warship or coast guard vessel in a menacing way near various neighbors. But the reclaimed land was uninhabited, and the warships haven’t been firing shots in anger.