ABSTRACT
In June 2009, President Barack Obama gave a major agenda-setting speech in Cairo, Egypt. The president asserted that the spread to Muslim-majority countries of democratic "governments that reflect the will of the people" would be a key outcome that would make these states "ultimately more stable, successful and secure". Although Obama in his 2009 speech in Cairo had called for the spread of democracy in the Muslim world, his administration's reactions to the Arab Spring beginning in late 2010 were most likely not the same as they would have been nearly two years earlier. Obama's engagement of the Iranian government not only failed with respect to Iran's hard-line leaders but also angered many of those Iranians who were sympathetic to the reform movement. Obama's dominant foreign policy inclinations—especially during his first year as president—reinforced the conclusions resulting from the perceived failings of the Bush administration.
