The well-connected Jim Hoagland has a preview of how the Obama administration hopes the next year or so of its foreign policy will pan out. On Iran, still the biggest foreign policy challenge facing this administration, Hogland writes: ‘The next diplomatic trampoline for Obama is the G-20 summit [on September 24th], which he will host and hope to use to forge new multilateral approaches on I...

The greatest foreign policy challenge the Obama administration faces is Iran. The problem posed by Iran is compounded by the sheer number of ways in which Iran is a problem for the US. First and foremost, there is Iran’s nuclear programme. But then there is also Iran’s support for Shiite extremists in Iraq, its role as the major backer of the rejectionists of Hamas and Hezbollah and it...

This is how a pragmatist understands US foreign policy in conjunction with the Iranian nuclear weapons crisis! Yesterday morning I wrote a short commentary on the Obama administration's lack of understanding about Iran and that country's quest to obtain nuclear weapons. The writing was in response to reports of new sanctions being placed on Iran by Washington that were ostensibly designe...

Barack Obama is the first Democrat to be Commander in Chief in the post 9/11 era. The election of a Democrat was a necessary requirement for the emergence of a new, settled American foreign policy for this time. You can’t have a bi-partisan foreign policy consensus when only one party knows the foreign policy challenges from the inside. Certainly the Bush administration made mistakes on fore...

Barack Obama's charismatic aura is obscuring an uncomfortable truth. His foreign policy is in crisis: problems with Iran and Russia are merging into a single, nasty mess. The US president must be tough enough not to be panicked into macho gestures, writes Gideon Rachman

This article argues that Barack Obama's conciliatory tone has caused difficulties for the hardliners in Iran. Obviously, the US and Iran still have major foreign policy differences and the US is still determined to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons. However, Obama has made it clear that he wishes to improve relations with Iran and make the relationship more nuanced and less one of simple mutual...

The Obama administration and Congress are gearing up for a battle over sanctions against Iran, with Capitol Hill resisting White House pressure on measures the administration says could antagonise allies and complicate its foreign policy

Obama signs new sanctions against Iran into law from Hawaii while leaving himself wiggle room to lift same sanctions if he so chooses! Once again Iran must be quaking in its boots or in whatever footwear is actually worn there! That country is currently holding war games lasting 10 days in the Strait of Hormuz having warned the world that any new sanctions would be met with them closing this criti...

President-elect Barack Obama promised to focus on Middle East peace from the start of his administration and to treat Iran with 'respect' as he set out his foreign policy thinking in greater detail than before

Barack Obama might have little option but to follow George W. Bush's approach on a range of foreign policy issues, including Iran, said Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state