The Obama Administration: Perspectives and Encounters Beyond America

This collection offers a detailed assessment of the varied ways in which President Barack Obama was received by audiences beyond America’s borders and assesses what effect this had on his foreign policy initiatives. The book approaches international perceptions of President Obama through specific case study examinations of his most significant state visits, offering original insights into Obama’s reception in Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa.

Chapters on Europe explore the complex relationship that Obama shared with both British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Northern Ireland’s fragile executive. The papal visit is also examined as well as Obama’s image in Russia, which explores the varied ways in which state-controlled media attempted to portray Obama as an enemy of Russia. Chapters on the Middle East address the various shifts that occurred in America’s relationship with Iran under Obama, Israeli hostilities towards Obama, and Turkey’s more assertive foreign policy. Other contributions include analysis of Obama’s visits to Ghana and Kenya, providing important insights into US-Africa relations under his administration and Obama’s historic visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan. Together, these essays provide a detailed and comprehensive assessment of Obama’s state visits, with much needed insight into how the perceptions of Obama, formed by these visits, affected the US’ diplomatic and foreign policy initiatives under his administration.

Dawn-Marie Gibson is a Senior Lecturer in Modern American History at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. She is the author of Women of the Nation: Between Black Protest and Sunni Islam (2014), The Nation of Islam (2016) and New Perspectives on the Nation of Islam (2017).

Rachel Pistol is a Researcher at King’s College London, UK, and is part of the management team for the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure. She is the author of Internment During the Second World War: A Comparative Study of Great Britain and the USA (2017) as well as articles published in Presidential Studies Quarterly, Comparative American Studies and Patterns of Prejudice.