ABSTRACT
Campaigning under the slogan ‘change we can believe in’, there were genuine and widespread expectations that the election of Barack Obama to the United States (US) Presidency in 2008 would result in significant policy change, particularly in relation to America’s much-criticised global War on Terror. Following his inauguration speech, as well as his widely lauded Cairo speech, it was believed that President Obama would draw a line under many of the most controversial counterterrorism policies that had characterised the Bush Jr presidency and inaugurate a new era of global engagement on security matters. However, even the most cursory examination of Obama’s first term suggests that in the counterterrorism field at least, there is far more continuity than change with the policies and approach of the George W. Bush Jr era.
