ABSTRACT
US’s world view President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address on 28 January 2014 emphasised that from nearly 180,000 Americans serving in Iraq and Afghanistan when he took office, all of the US troops were then out of Iraq and more than 60,000 troops had already come home from Afghanistan. With Afghan forces in the lead for their own security, the US troops had moved to a support role. Together with the allies, the US would complete the mission there by the end of 2014, and America’s longest war would finally be over. 2 However, this was not the case. As late as 15 October 2015, President Obama was constrained to revise his thinking and state that the US troops will stay in Afghanistan until 2017. 3
President Obama pointed out that the danger of terrorism remains. While al-Qaeda’s (AQ) core leadership has been defeated, the threat has evolved with AQ affiliates and other extremists taking root in different parts of the world. In Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and Mali, the US has to keep working with partners to disrupt and disable these networks. In Syria, the US supports the opposition that rejects the agenda of terrorist networks. At home, the US would keep strengthening its defences and combat new threats like cyber-attacks. He added, in a world of complex threats, the US’s security and leadership depends on all elements of its power – including strong and principled diplomacy.
