Abstract

“Yes, we can!” stated Obama at the end of every speech during his electoral campaign. After his election, what are the perspective for change in United States’ foreign policy? It seems that the two key words will be “diplomacy and multilateralism”, contrary to those under George Bush, which were “militarism and unilateralism”. However, let us not forget that President Obama will have to deal with the underlying trends of the American foreign policy in the long run, the political context left behind by Bush and the foreseeable opposition of certain lobbies such as arms companies. With regard to Iraq, he will be able to capitalize on the policy change started by George Bush since 2006 and confirm the withdrawal of American troops. In the author’s opinion, the two “disturbing subjects” will be the Israel-Palestine conflict and Afghanistan. However, according to him, the current economic crisis will force Barack Obama to lower the military budget, which might imply the suspension of certain armament programmes such as the antimissile shield.

Key words : United States, foreign policy, diplomacy, multilateralism, Obama, after Bush