Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration

The foreign policy of Barack Obama was the foreign policy of the United States during his administration. Obama named his chief rival for the nomination Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State during his first term, with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry taking over the post in February 2013. Supporters of Obama's foreign policy applaud what they describe as his cooperation with allies and multilateralism, his ending of the Iraq War, his continuation of the process of ending U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, the administration's attempts at destroying al-Qaeda's core leadership, particularly the killing of Osama bin Laden; promoting discussions that led to the 2015 Paris Agreement on global climate change, brokering a nuclear deal with Iran, and normalizing U.S. relations with Cuba.

The Obama administration's foreign policy receive criticism across the political spectrum. "Hawkish" conservatives such as Obama's 2008 Republican challenger John McCain and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham have accused the President of being timid and ineffectual in wielding American influence. Some even claimed that Obama's policy of "appeasement" was leading to a US retreat from the world scene and to an abandon of U.S. allies. On the other hand, more "dovish" liberals such as Jimmy Carter and Dennis Kucinich accused him of cynicism and heavy-handedness. More specifically, some critics charged that he had pursued similarly imperialistic policies to those of his predecessor, George W. Bush, of whom Obama was deeply critical during his tenure in the Senate and his 2008 presidential campaign.

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