Rebalancing: U.S. Grand Strategy under Obama Administration

Although it is usually said that the Obama administration lacks any coherent foreign policy strategy, this paper examines domestic and international variables influencing strategic environment surrounding U.S. administration and argues that this administration has acted within a coherent grand strategy framework. In fact, while the Obama administration’s foreign policy seems to be divergent and incoherent, in the first place, but experiencing economic austerity and transition of international system imposes certain foreign policy behaviors on Washington that its fundamental strategic logic could be discerned by deep insight. So this paper seeks to explain what, if any, the U.S. grand strategy under Obama administration has been and what caused it to be shaped. Using neoclassical realism as theoretical framework, this paper argues that rebalancing U.S. power has been the grand strategic concept shaping Obama’s foreign policy. Of course Obama's foreign policy has experienced many shortcomings and lags behind international developments but this does not mean having no grand strategy.