Obama's Foreign Policy: Ending the War on Terror.

• Author: Taylan, Ozge
• Position: Book review

By Michelle Bentley and Jack Holland

USA: Routledge, 2014, 208 pages, $130.94, ISBN: 9780415662604.

Reviewed by Ozge Taylan, Yildirim Beyazit University

By effectively defining the war on terror rhetoric, this heritage of Bush to Obama becomes the rhetorical lynchpin for the American foreign policy and everyday life in the post-9/11 era. Although various studies have analyzed U.S. foreign policy, studies on the rhetoric of the war on terror seem to remain limited. This book, that is a useful reference, serves scholars of U.S. foreign and security policy, Middle East studies, and terrorism. Besides the editors' introduction and conclusion, this book consists of ten substantive chapters, each tackling what the authors identify as the implementation of counterterrorism policies under the Obama Administration.

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In chapter one, Trevor McCrisken claims that Obama' foreign policy is compatible with the election rhetoric but expecting wholesale change in counter-terrorism policy is also unrealistic. The author illustrates differences in discourse and action in three accounts: First is the high expectation from the audiences and their misreading Obama's discourse on the "change." Second, Obama actually adopted a counterterrorism strategy that is inherited from Bush, called the 'Late-Bush Era' by the author. Finally, Obama's emphasis on values and morality has been questioned with the increased drone attacks policy. In chapter two, the author evaluates the questions "Is the U.S. in decline?" and "Are we witnessing the rise of the rest?" Drawing on the theory of Paul Kennedy as to "imperial overstretch," the author shows America's shrinking resource allocation for national security policies with figures, but he also strongly emphasizes that the United States enjoys an indisputable diplomatic power. The U.S. still possesses a preponderance of power, which leaves a margin for making mistakes (p. 53). Another mistake in the Middle East would be more risky; hence, Obama adopted a more prudent approach, which was seen in the Libya intervention and in his approach of refusing to overthrow the Syrian Government. In chapter three, Nicholas Kitchen focuses in detail on the increasing U.S. federal deficits since the Bush Administration. Retrieving the ideas of Susan Strange, Kitchen argues that the U.S. deficit under Obama was an indication not of weakness, but of American power.

In chapter four, the author claims that in foreign policy...