… the two bruising encounters [with President Xi Jinping of China and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia] in such a short span underscore a hard
reality for [President Obama] delivered as he heads deeper into a second term that may
come to be dominated by foreign policy.
Thus wrote
Mark Landler and Peter Baker about the
Apologizer-in-Chief in the New York Times a couple of years ago, before spelling out
the harsh reality in question:
his main counterparts on the world stage are not his friends, and they
make little attempt to cloak their disagreements in diplomatic
niceties.
Even his friends are not always so friendly. On Wednesday, for example,
the president is to meet in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel of
Germany, who has invited him to deliver a speech at the Brandenburg
Gate. But Ms. Merkel is also expected to press Mr. Obama about the
National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, which offend
privacy-minded Germans.
For all of his effort to cultivate personal ties with foreign
counterparts over the last four and a half years — the informal
“shirt-sleeves summit” with Mr. Xi was supposed to nurture a friendly
rapport that White House aides acknowledge did not materialize — Mr.
Obama has complicated relationships with some, and has bet on others who
came to disappoint him.
… Even with friends, however, there is tension. President François
Hollande of France was initially thrilled with Mr. Obama because he saw
him as an ally against Ms. Merkel on economic issues.
But by the time they met at the
Group of 8
summit meeting in Northern Ireland on Tuesday, the relationship had
soured, according to French analysts, because France is frustrated that
the United States did not do more to help with the war in Mali and
resisted a more robust response to Syria.
Mr. Obama differs from his most recent predecessors, who made personal
relationships with leaders the cornerstone of their foreign policies.
The first George Bush moved gracefully in foreign capitals, while
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush related to fellow leaders as
politicians, trying to understand their pressures and constituencies.
“That’s not President Obama’s style,” said James B. Steinberg, Mr.
Clinton’s deputy national security adviser and Mr. Obama’s deputy
secretary of state. …
