Obama's Foreign Policy: Ending the War on Terror

This edited volume is an innovative analysis of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, security and counter-terrorism policy, specifically within the context of ending the now infamous War on Terror. The book adopts a comparative approach, analysing change and continuity in US foreign policy during Obama’s first term in office vis-à-vis the foreign policy of the War on Terror, initiated by George W. Bush following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Despite being heralded as an agent of change, since his election in 2008 Obama has faced criticism that his foreign policy is effectively the same as what went before and that the War on Terror is still alive and well. Far from delivering wholesale change, Obama has been accused of replicating and even reinforcing the approach, language and policies that many anticipated he would reject. With contributions from a range of US foreign policy experts, this volume analyses the extent to which these criticisms of continuity are correct, identifying how the failure to end the War on Terror is manifest and explaining the reasons that have made enacting change in foreign policy so difficult. In addressing these issues, contributions to this volume will discuss continuity and change from a range of perspectives in International Relations and Foreign Policy Analysis.

This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of US foreign policy, security studies and American politics.

Dr Michelle Bentley is a Researcher at the University of Southampton. She specialises in US foreign policy and international security, especially where this relates to the construction of, and policy responses to, extreme threats. In particular, she is interested in weapons of mass destruction and mass fatality terrorism.

Dr Jack Holland is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Surrey. His research broadly focuses on foreign and security policy. In particular his expertise lies in American, British and Australian foreign policy, especially during the ‘War on Terror’. He is also interested in critical approaches in International Relations, such as constructivism.