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Back to To the Point

To the Point

President Obama Outlines Post-War Foreign Policy

At West Point today, President Obama told graduating cadets he would betray his duty to them if he sent them into harm's way just because military action was "the only way for America to avoid looking weak."

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By Warren Olney • May 28, 2014 • 1 min read

At West Point today, President Obama told graduating cadets he would betray his duty to them if he sent them into harm's way just because military action was "the only way for America to avoid looking weak." Emphasizing that many critical problems don't need military solutions, the President then went on to describe what he called his "vision" for the US and the military "in the years to come." As to the spread of terrorist organizations to the Middle East and North Africa, the President said he's developing "a network of partnership," new resources that would be used for security forces in Yemen, Somalia and Mali… with what he called "critical focus" on Syria. Invoking post-war Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy for their reliance on international institutions, he defended his own record, saying that America's ability to shape world opinion through international institutions served as a "counterweight to Russian propaganda" about recent actions in Ukraine… and that reliance on multilateral negotiations has created the prospect of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. We hear more about the President's much-awaited foreign policy guidelines, including a strategy for combating terrorism. What did he leave out?

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    Warren Olney

    former KCRW broadcaster

  • KCRW placeholder

    Andrea Brody

    Senior Producer, KCRW's Life Examined and To the Point podcast

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    Mike Kessler

    freelance journalist

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    Gideon Brower

    Independent Producer

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    Brian Katulis

    senior fellow at the Center for American Progress

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    Stephen M. Walt

    Harvard University

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    Max Boot

    columnist who covers national security for the Washington Post

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