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Author : A. Orlov
Director, Institute for International Studies, Moscow State Institute (University) of International Rela-
tions, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
EVERY AMERICAN PRESIDENT wants to make
history. Few of them succeeded; most of them simply
were not up to the mark; and some made it with a neg-
ative mark, to put it mildly.
Today, Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th president of
the United States, is another "lame duck." Eight years
ago, he replaced Republican President George W. Bush
who had drawn the country into two prolonged and
highly unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with
sad financial, military and political results. Against this
unfavorable background, Democrat Obama looked to
the United States and the world as a person able to offer an alternative to the previous hawkish political
course, to move away from conflict settlement by force and normalize, in this way, the political climate
on our planet. He looked like the right man to deal with the most complex international problems.
The liberal world community hoped that President Obama would steer the country away from the war
and would opt for peace.
THE SPEECHES that President Obama addresses to the national and international public sound more
as sermons than speeches of a political leader. In the last few months, this impression has increased.
This is not the main thing; the question is: Is there a need to incessantly remind the world that this par-
ticular state is the beacon for mankind? If it is obvious there is no need in repeating it all over again;
this is not a chemical formula to be learned by heart. There is a strong feeling that something is wrong;
there is no compatibility between the imagined and the real picture.
While applying its multi-vector pressure on Moscow Washington turned the deaf ear to Russia's con-
cerns over all sorts of military programs designed to tip the balance of power in favor of the United
States. A simple enumeration of what has been done is long enough to fill an article.
America explains each new coil of arms race by the need to ensure its security. It remains to be seen
whether this can be accomplished with hyper-sound weapons and global ABM system. It looks as if
Americans are still convinced that the two great oceans - the Atlantic and Pacific - flanking the country's
East and West coasts ensure their safety. This is a delusion.
The U.S. policy of adjusting the system of international relations to its interests has already caused a
string of cruel and bloody local conflicts in the Middle East; they went on for some time to finally de-
velop into a region-wide conflict. Today, it is developing from a sociopolitical into an intra-confessional
war.
Americans are prepared to cooperate. Obama has several months left to do something in order to be
remembered in history not by numerous conflicts and the state of international relations close to the
Cold War9 but as the president who gave the world a slim hope for positive changes.
Электронное приложение к журналу «
Международная жизнь
»
Barack Obama: Preliminary Results of His Presidency