In the months before the 2012 election, President Obama touted his foreign policy accomplishments — perhaps, his foes claimed, to avoid discussion of the dismal job numbers and faltering economy. Whatever his reasoning, Obama made the death of Osama bin Laden and the end of the Iraq War the centerpiece of his 2012 campaign. It was a bold move for a candidate who had almost no foreign policy experience before he entered the White House.
BBC State Department correspondent Kim Ghattas has watched the Obama Administration’s foreign policy goals unfold firsthand, as she traveled the world with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Ghattas describes her experiences with Clinton abroad in her new book, “The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power.”
While the book centers on Secretary Clinton’s diplomacy, Ghattas says she uses Clinton’s story “as America’s diplomat-in-chief, America’s ambassador to the world, to tell a bigger story of American power on the global stage.”
In the wake of the Iraq War, Ghattas says, “the U.S. needs to figure out new ways of doing business around the world. The old scorecard doesn’t work.”
As President Obama travels to Israel for the first time since his 2008 election, Ghattas says that while the President faces a number of challenges in the region, particularly in Syria, she appreciates his Administration’s approach. The President and his Administration “seem to have a better understanding of the nuances” in the Middle East, Ghattas explains.