Obama's Overseas To-Do List for 2010

Afghanistan, Iran top list that domestic politics could kill anyway
By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 22, 2009 7:07 PM CST
Obama's Overseas To-Do List for 2010
President Barack Obama visits a Boys and Girls Club in Washington yesterday.   (AP Photo)

As President Obama noted in his Nobel speech, it’s a scary world out there, and Kevin Whitelaw takes a look at some of the things on his foreign-policy to-do list in 2010:

  • Pacify Afghanistan to some extent: Now that it’s “undeniably Obama’s war,” Whitelaw writes for NPR, he must “use those extra forces to help reverse the Taliban’s recent gains, make a visible dent in the rising violence and jump-start the training of Afghan security forces.”

  • Counter the nuclear ambitions of Iran, North Korea: The US faces an uphill battle getting Russia and China to approve sanctions against both—and finding other good options alone will be tough.
  • Reach out to pariah regimes: “Re-establishing relations with Myanmar or longtime enemies like Cuba could go a long way toward setting a new tone for the US on the world stage, but that doesn't mean it’s likely.”
For the full list, and how domestic concerns could shove foreign policy to a back burner, click the link at right. (More President Obama stories.)

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