Back to the Future in West Asia

From Iran to Cuba....the USS Columbia is turning?

In today's New York Times President Obama's trip to Latin America and his opening to Cuba is analyzed. In a matter of a week, President Obama's team has changed course on two long-standing foreign policy areas with grand implications.  Iran and Cuba have been closely tied to the rise of the US as a global power since 1898, yet both states violently expelled American patronage in the second half of the 20th century.  Iran and Cuba have defined the rise and hubris of the American century, as well as the limits to American power. The sobering outcomes of US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan brought forth the Obama presidency with its transformative promise. Since Cairo in 2009, Libya in 2011, Syria 2013 and to this latest series of agreements the Obama Administration has been attempting to change the course of the American foreign policy. The effects of this course change will certainly be significant, but a final assessment will not be rendered for a while. Nonetheless, as Columbia is opening up its arms to its former "allies" the immediate test will be whether she is willing to accept them as they are, rather than try to change them, which is the test that every parent faces.