On the night of November 4, 2008, when the stunning news of Barack Obama’s victory in the United States presidential race began filtering through, there were many tears of joy around the world. The senator from Illinois had achieved the impossible — shattering a centuries-old racial barrier to become the first African-American to be elected to the White House. Less than a year later, the celebrations erupted once again when Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”, specially his promotion of nuclear non-proliferation, fostering a “new climate” in international relations and reaching out to the Muslim world. The award capped Obama’s remarkable rise to presidency — a journey that began with little experience of government and often pitted him against formidable veterans such as Republican senator John McCain or the Democrats’ own Hillary Clinton. In October of 2009, it seemed that Obama had already carved his enduring legacy.
But history is a stern judge, and many of the promises that Obama had held out — often unveiled though his fiery oratory from Cairo to Oslo to successive State of the Union addresses — seem to have dissipated over the years even as his presidency gathered strength.
Inheriting a White House reeling from the consequences of the war in Iraq, Obama ran into early headwinds with the 2008 financial crisis. In many ways, this conundrum would eventually come to define Obama’s tenure at the White House — his initial years were spent tackling his war-weary country’s (and the world’s) suspicion of forceful leadership in global affairs, and yet the US needed to act decisively in key areas to prevent further erosion of global credibility.
Foreign policy challenges
The key foreign policy signposts that stand out during Obama’s eight years in office are many — from the historic nuclear deal with Iran to the killing of Osama Bin Laden to hugging President Raul Castro in Havana as the Cuban detente took off.
Yet, it is the same president who waged successive military campaigns from Somalia and Libya to Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. His decision to withdraw nearly all US troops from Iraq by the end of 2011 is often blamed for creating the power vacuum that led to the rise of Daesh. Indeed, the Obama administration has been accused of presiding over the birth of the most potent terrorist organisation in modern history. In Syria, Obama’s CIA-aided policy of backing moderate rebels for a regime change similarly backfired, and the resulting quagmire eventually helped strengthen the case for Russia’s increasing engagement. Despite promising to usher lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis, and despite US Secretary of State John Kerry’s multi-year efforts in chasing an implausible peace deal, Obama’s avowed intentions seem to have evaporated as the summers passed by.
While Obama was bereft of the hard rhetoric of former president George W. Bush, his tenure saw the much of the same hard power at work as in his predecessor’s: According to US military data, for example, US troops dropped more than 26,000 bombs in seven countries last year. And thanks to the increasing use of drones in neutralising potential or confirmed terror threats, Obama has earned the dubious sobriquet of ‘Drone President’. Whether in Afghanistan or the war in Syria that prompted millions of uprooted refugees to migrate, Obama has often appeared to take substantial action without altering the geopolitical framework that governs US foreign policy. Such old paradigms in a new era hardly appear effective.
Positive impact
However, the outgoing president can certainly boast of his economic legacy of guiding the US through the choppy waters of the 2008 recession. His fiscal stimulus bill saved the US from a new Great Depression; unemployment fell well below the danger threshold and America’s robust economic recovery signalled the end of a record interest-free era; in spite of the shrill Republican criticism, Obamacare managed to decisively expand health insurance for the average American. His unflinching efforts on climate change, the use of executive powers to redirect policy across a wide range of issues are further proof of Obama’s transformative tenure. Much of the success of those legacies will, however, depend crucially on the intentions of Donald Trump.
Perhaps the seeds of disappointment were sowed with the burden of expectations that most Americans and the world bestowed on Obama at the beginning of his presidency. But for all his failures, setbacks and contradictions, Barack Hussain Obama will still be remembered for being a liberal icon in a turbulent era fraught with polarised politics and divisive rhetoric, and history will ensure his legacy is etched into the hearts and minds of generations yet to come.
