European Institute

“The Consequentialist: How the Arab Spring remade Obama’s foreign policy,” by Ryan Lizza in The New Yorker. Unpredictable events – notably in the Near East -- are driving U.S. diplomacy away from its initial focus on Asia. This detailed account depicts an intelligent President learning on the job as he straddles differing views inside his own team. Written before Bin Laden’s elimination, it posits the Libyan crisis as a new U.S. policy approach of “leading from behind.” Recommended by European Affairs. (5/6)