As well as appointing Hillary Clinton (whose stand on US foreign policy is almost identical to that of John McCain) as his Secretary of State, and retaining the services of George Bush's Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, Barack Obama has made some major s...

We are told that “experts” have now warned President-elect Barack Obama of a nuclear Iran. Iran poses the greatest foreign policy challenge to Barack Obama, the President-elect, with Tehran on course to produce a nuclear bomb in the first year of an Obama administration, a coalition of top think-tanks gave warning yesterday. Mr Obama must keep his

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...

Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama may well be the final nail in the coffin of John McCain's presidential bid. Gen Powell, formerly Secretary of State under the current Republican administration described Sen Obama as the, "transformational figure" necessary for America. When it comes to foreign policy, it is this notion of the Democratic contender representing a fresh start that...

President-elect Barack Obama unveiled his picks for the members of his foreign policy team today. As expected, Hillary Clinton is Obama's choice for Secretary of State and General James Jones, who's controversial views on Israel and the Middle East I've mentioned beforewill be Obama's choice for National Security Adviser. Robert Gates stays on for the present as SecDef, which i...

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...

Why is President Barack Hussein Obama so weak and dysfunctional on foreign policy? While there are a great many items since he took office we could cite, let's examine just a few of the more recent items... *For all his blather about being 'disturbed' by the Iranian regime's violence towards its own people and not being 'reconciled to a nuclear Iran', Obama is doing a...

Barack Obama's second year in office will be tested by an intransigent Iran and North Korea after policy of engagement failed to make breakthroughs