Obama's vision

Congress can obstruct Obama's foreign policy as well, but this remains a domain where any US president "enjoys almost royal prerogatives," to use Alexis de Tocqueville's somewhat inflated description.

These prerogatives, however, have so far allowed Obama only to describe the world that he wants, not to bring it about. George W. Bush committed the cardinal sin of all fallen empires - that of overreach. The Obama alternative was supposed to be collective global security sustained by multilateral structures. Rather than containing rising powers such as China and India, they would be drawn into a civilized world order, one based on global governance and "smart diplomacy."