Obama's Middle Eastern Strategy: From Assigning Responsibility to Allies to Accepting limited responsibility

Subject Areas :

فرزاد محمدزاده ابراهیمی ¹ , محمدرضا ملکی ² , سید جواد امام جمعه زاده ³

1 - دانشجوی دکتری تخصصی روابط بین الملل دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد اصفهان(خوراسگان)
2 - استادیارگروه حقوق و علوم سیاسی دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد کرج،
3 - دانشیار گروه علوم سیاسی و روابط بین الملل دانشگاه اصفهان

Received: 2016-08-01 Accepted : 2016-10-22 Published : 2016-10-01

Keywords: Obama's Middle East strategy, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Neoclassical Realism, Arab Spring developments, balancing from a distance,

Abstract :

Abstract There has been much criticism about Obama’s Middle East strategy and some believe that it lacked strategic prospect. An examination of the Middle East strategy of the United States under Obama administration from the viewpoint of neo-classic realism not only does not approve this view but also indicates that Obama has adopted a coherent strategy from the beginning of his presidency towards the Middle East and on this basis he has made significant efforts to promote the United States national security. So it is interesting to answer this question as to what strategy Obama adopted vis-à-vis the Middle East and what policies was pursued to achieve those goals? The present article by a descriptive-analytical method wants to show that the Middle East strategy of the United States under Obama administration started with assigning responsibility to its allies within the framework of balancing from remote distance and by the passage of time moved to accept limited responsibility. Taking into consideration the closeness of Obama’s administration foreign policy to realism theory, the authors of the article believe that this theory can better explain the foreign policy of the United States under Barack Obama presidency.