From West Point to Brussels – via Warsaw

President Obama’s commencement address at West Point on 29 May served to outline US foreign policy priorities in his second term. Having announced the future size of the military presence in Afghanistan two days prior, the president’s remarks were a symbolic bookend to US engagement in the troubled country. Beyond confirming the end of US military engagement in Afghanistan by 2016 (the current combat mission itself is to end in 2014), Obama’s speech also focused on the future of US leadership in a changing world.

Furthermore, both G7 summit meeting in Brussels and the president´s preceding visit to Poland saw Obama put his foreign policy and leadership credo into action in pursuit of a solution to the crisis in Ukraine. At the same time, domestic reactions to the West Point speech highlight constraints which could impact on the president´s future room for manoeuvre.

By Eva Gross

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: No TTIP-ing point for European defence? http://www.europeansources.info/record/no-ttip-ing-point-for-european-defence/

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