Retreat and its Consequences American Foreign Policy and the Problem of World Order

What are the consequences of retreat and retrenchment in foreign policy? In recent years, America has pulled back from its long-time role of international leadership. In doing so the Obama administration has sought to conciliate adversaries, shown indifference to allies; called upon the international community to step in; proclaimed and then disavowed 'red lines'; and preferred to lead from behind in the face of catastrophic civil war in Syria, ISIS barbarism in the Middle East and North Africa, Russia's predatory behavior in Eastern Europe, and China's muscle-flexing in East Asia. The consequences of this 'realist' experiment have been costly and painful, and it has caused the US to lose credibility with friends and foes. America retains the capacity to lead, but unless it resumes a more robust role, the world is likely to become a more dangerous place, with mounting threats not only to regional stability and international order, but to the national interests of America itself.

1. Foreign policy retreat and the problem of world order; 2. Burden sharing with Europe: problems of capability and will; 3. Middle East policy: regional conflicts and threats to national interest; 4. BRICS: stakeholders or free-riders?; 5. Retreat and its consequences; 6. Can America still lead - and should it?

Robert J. Lieber is Professor of Government and International Affairs at Georgetown University, Washington DC, where he has previously served as Chair of the Government Department and Interim Chair of Psychology. He is author or editor of sixteen books on international relations and US foreign policy, and he has been an advisor to presidential campaigns, to the State Department, and to the drafters of US National Intelligence Estimates. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin and earned his PhD at Harvard University, Massachusetts. He has held fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Smith Richardson Foundation. He also has taught at Harvard University, Massachusetts, the University of Oxford and the University of California, Davis, and has been Visiting Fellow at the Fondation nationale des sciences politiques in Paris, the Brookings Institution, Washington DC, and Fudan University, Shanghai. His articles have appeared in leading scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers, and his media appearances have included the PBS NewsHour, ABC, NBC, CBS, and programs in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Professor Lieber has been a recipient of Georgetown University's Career Research Achievement Award and the Hepburn-Shibusawa Distinguished Senior Lectureship at the University of Tokyo.