By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer

Washington — In the three years since President Obama’s inauguration, the world has seen significant shifts in U.S. foreign policy as the United States has ended its involvement in Iraq, focused its efforts on nuclear nonproliferation and security, and emphasized the importance of the Asia-Pacific region to American interests.

If the United States continues on the course the president has set, “I think we will see in 2016 the U.S. posture in the world will look very different than it did in 2008,” said White House Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes.

Rhodes was speaking January 30 at the Center for American Progress, a public policy think tank in Washington.

Obama campaigned on a commitment to end the U.S. military involvement in Iraq, and Rhodes said that commitment has now been met. In August 2010, 100,000 U.S. troops were removed and all U.S. combat operations ended in the country, and in 2011 the last American forces were withdrawn, fulfilling the U.S. drawdown agreement with the Iraqi government.

The drawdown has not only allowed an opportunity for the United States and Iraq to build a new bilateral relationship as sovereign states, but it has also enhanced U.S. efforts against the international terrorist group al-Qaida.

Iraq “was the overwhelming focus of U.S. foreign policy for so many years. It is almost hard for some of us to remember that today, but really for five years or so, Iraq really consumed most policymakers in Washington and our actions around the world,” Rhodes said.

“Ending the war in Iraq has been a critical part of our shift to a more focused effort against al-Qaida. It’s manifested in resources allocated against al-Qaida. It’s manifested in how the government spends its time,” including greater U.S. special operations forces capabilities in Afghanistan against al-Qaida, he said.

The global war on terrorism has been transformed into a more narrow U.S. effort against al-Qaida. Rhodes said the coming withdrawal of U.S. forces in Afghanistan will allow even more focus on the terrorist group and its affiliates in Somalia, Yemen and elsewhere.

The greatest potential danger to U.S. national security is a nuclear weapon in the hands of a terrorist organization. Rhodes said that during the first three years of his term, President Obama has rebalanced the U.S. national security strategy to include a comprehensive nuclear security and nonproliferation agenda to help counter that threat worldwide.

The president’s strategy has resulted in the landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia under which both countries are reducing their nuclear weapons stockpiles by 30 percent.

Under the president’s leadership, the international community has set a goal of preventing nuclear terrorism by securing all of the world’s vulnerable nuclear materials by 2014. Through his dual-track approach toward Iran and North Korea, Obama has increased global pressure on both countries and deepened their isolation as a result of their nuclear activities.

Obama also reduced the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. national security strategy while maintaining the U.S. moratorium on nuclear testing, and he has pledged not to use nuclear weapons on nations that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Rhodes said that during the Obama administration, the United States has continued to support greater freedom and democracy around the world, but it is doing so “through an approach that empowers movements for change rather than necessarily trying to impose U.S. outcomes on situations.”

That approach has guided the U.S. response not only to recent Arab political uprisings, but also toward developments in countries including Côte d’Ivoire, South Sudan and Burma, he said.

The United States has also shifted its focus to the Asia-Pacific region, not only through changes in its defense budgeting and its decision to send a U.S. Marine contingent force to Australia, but also through trade developments such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the completion of a free-trade agreement with South Korea, and U.S. participation in the East Asia Summit and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Rhodes said the president has also broadened the U.S. relationship with emerging powers such as India, Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey, and he has elevated the Group of 20 (G20) leading economies to replace the Group of Eight (G8) as the premier forum for international economic cooperation.

Obama has also shifted the role of U.S. assistance in developing countries to emphasize capacity investment, which has the long-term goal of helping those countries become more self-sufficient and in less need of foreign assistance.

Three years after President Obama’s inauguration, Rhodes said, there is “a huge demand for U.S. leadership around the world and for its partnership in global trade and security.”

“There’s no other nation that comes close to playing the role that America plays” in the international system and global developments, he said.