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Barack Obama has had to deal with a heavy legacy left by the Bush administration in the Middle East. The “militarization of foreign policy” still exists, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan. Washington's reaction to the 2011 revolutions has not been exempt from hesitations and contradictions; American policy with respect to the Arab world is currently in a phase of reorientation.

Jussi Hanhimäki, The United States and Multilateralism Since 9/11Unilateralism and multilateralism must be understood to be American diplomatic stabilization instruments, focused on protecting the country's interests. It now appears that George W.Bush made milder changes in his time than once thought. The Obama administration seems to use a discourse much more open to multilateralism. The evolutions of global power balances will, in the future, urge Washington to turn more often to multilateral negotiation.

Charles-Philippe David, From Bush to Obama: The Effect of 9/11 on Decision-Making at the White House
September11th has without a doubt been facilitated by the dysfunction within American information and decision-making systems. However the attacks also marked the beginning of a particular period where decisions are made by a very limited group of men, short-circuiting the normal processes and marginalizing any debate. Hence the wanderings of the “war on terror”, which the Obama administration has strived to rectify.

Frédéric Encel, Israel/United States: On Political Use of Radical Islam
Diplomatically isolated and confronted with the second Intifada, Israel has chosen 9/11 to strengthen its relationship with Washington in the context of the fight against terrorism. Since this change, the Israeli-Palestinian balance of power has been profoundly modified. Ten years later however, the Obama administration struggles to adopt an attitude of distance with respect to Israel, but the threat of terrorism seems to have weakened and thus questions the system put in place by Tel-Aviv after 9/11.

Jalal Al Husseini, The Terrorist Attacks of 9/11 and the Palestinian Question
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 have profoundly changed the Israeli-Palestinian situation. The relationship between Washington and Tel-Aviv was strengthened and Israel succeeded in marginalizing the idea of a Palestinian state with viable borders. The external interference was detrimental to the credibility of the Palestinian Authority (PA) with lasting institutional consequences. It is the combination of all of these standoffs that has pushed the Palestinians towards the debate on the recognition of their state at the United Nations (UN).

Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, The United States in Iraq: The Digressions of Regime Change
The American intervention in Iraq has not had the intended domino effect: a succession of regime changes pushing for democratization in the region. Iraq has in fact undergone what seems more like a “regime replacement” than a “regime change”. The chaotic Iraqi democracy has at no time been used as a model for the Arab revolutions of 2011. In the future it could be these revolutions that may influence the internal balances in Iraq.

Suzanne Maloney, Tehran and Washington: A Motionless Relationship?
Following the attacks of 9/11, American and Iranian interests converged on the Afghan question. Washington and Tehran established a fruitful cooperation, which ended with George W.Bush's Freedom Agenda and the revelation of an Iranian nuclear program. If Barack Obama had wanted to hold a hand out to Iranian leaders in the beginning of his first term as president, he has lately become a more traditional politician, using sanctions to make Tehran cooperate.

Dorothée Schmid, Turkey, a Longtime Ally of the United States and a New Challenger
A member of NATO since 1952, Turkey has traditionally been an ally of the United States, despite disagreements on Cyprus and Iraq. However, since the arrival into power of the Justice and Development Party, relations between the two countries have been tense. From this point on, it will be necessary to find a balance between the need to recognize a more ambitious Turkey on a regional level and the imperatives of American security.

Anatol Lieven, The United States and Pakistan: A High-Risk Relationship
The American strategy towards Pakistan has favored goals linked to operations in Afghanistan without necessarily taking Islamabad's interests into account. The army and the Pakistani opinion are therefore more and more sensitive to American intrusions in the country. A possible agreement with the Taliban in which Pakistan would play a decisive role could restore national Pakistani interests to a place of importance. Pakistan's most pressing interests remain concerned with the growing power of India in the region.

Élie Tenenbaum, America at War: The Rise and Fall of Counterinsurgency
After the failure of the regime change concept in Iraq, counterinsurgency is the new paradigm of American foreign operations. It has seen some success in Iraq, but has failed in Afghanistan. Counterinsurgency has a complex history in the rivalries between the armed services and demands a mobilization of resources, especially people, out of reach of the limited wars. The withdrawal from Afghanistan will certainly mark the end of a conceptual cycle of counterinsurgency.

Mansouria Mokhefi, The United States Facing the Arab Spring
The arrival into power of Barack Obama, following two terms of George W.Bush marked notably by the war in Iraq, sparked much hope within Arab countries. Surprised by the magnitude and speed of the revolutions in 2011, the Obama administration reacted case by case pragmatically and in a way that conformed largely to American interests. Thus hope was followed by disillusion and the American president is now very unpopular in the Arab world.

Marc Crapez, Democracy in the Arab-Muslim Sphere
Is there uniqueness to the democratic deficiency in the Arab-Muslim sphere? The evolution of diverse situations (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, etc.) makes it impossible at the moment to say whether we have witnessed successful revolutions. The impossibility of satisfying a pressing demand for democracy could in the long term have the effect of putting Islamism, with legitimacy in Arab-Muslim societies, in the power seat.

André Dumoulin, CSDP: The Game of Letters and “Directories”In the context of a deadlock in the European Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), diverse bi- or trilateral initiatives have attempted to revive defense cooperation since 2010: the Franco-British accord, the Franco-German-Polish letter, the German-Swedish letter, etc. These partial axes of cooperation will certainly be useful, but they will not be able to replace the global political will, which alone could permit the carrying out of operations anticipated by the Treaty of Lisbon.