Barack Obama entered office with two clear but contrasting mandates: retrench U.S. foreign policy reach on the back of two unpopular wars in the Middle East yet maintain U.S. primacy in international affairs. In a global environment marked by U.S. influence at low ebb and structural challenges from a rising China, a resurgent Russia, and a sclerotic European Union, Obama ended up taking lessons from previous presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, and Carter who faced the need to retrench. He used technology to defend interests on the cheap like Eisenhower, redoubled diplomatic efforts to reassure allies and isolate adversaries like Nixon, but unlike Carter, he abandoned his liberal base on key issues such as electronic surveillance and civil liberties, closing Guantánamo, and relations between Palestine and Israel. The net result has been an arguably successful foreign policy record in terms of power at the cost of the hope and change supporters sought.
