As are most years, 2011 was a busy one in the realm of U.S. foreign policy. Lists, of course, are always subjective, but here is my review of the top foreign policy stories of 2011.
11: Obama's Cyberspace Initiative
In May, President Barack Obama introduced his International Strategy For Cyberspace. The initiative, housed in the U.S. State Department, aims to protect both the security and the openness of the internet.
In announcing the initiative, Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the use of computers, the internet, and social media in the various revolutions and protests that made up Arab Spring. Of course, the policy put the Obama administration at odds with governments not so secure with internet openness, such as China. Even England ran counter to Obama's plan when Prime Minister David Cameron wanted to shut down social media during summer protests.
10: Clinton Challenges Russian Election
Speaking of social media and the internet, protesters in Russia used both to challenge the results of a December 4 Duma election. Tempers flared after election watchers suggested that the United Russia party, to which both President Dimitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin belong, tampered with the election to hold on to a slim majority in the Duma, which is similar to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Putin took offense when Clinton questioned the election's validity, and he said her comments inspired the Russian protesters to take to the streets. For what it's worth, Medvedev has said the government will investigate the allegations.
9: Obama Raises U.S. Presence in Asia Pacific Region
It's certainly no secret that China is on the rise, both in the Asia Pacific region and globally. In November, Obama began moving to reaffirm -- and perhaps re-anchor -- the U.S. presence in the Asia Pacific.
First, Obama reaffirmed the longstanding U.S.-Australian relationship, and he announced that the U.S. was going to station military troops in northern Australia. The number is not large -- a few hundred at the start -- but it sends a message that the U.S. is still interested in the region.
Second, Obama is exploring re-establishing relations with Burma, which has essentially been a closed country for 50 years. Geographically located between China and India, Burma would give the U.S. a great policy and trade wedge in the region.
8: U.S. Calls For Syria's Assad To Step Down
Arab Spring swept through North Africa and the Middle East, and it ran into deadly resistance in Syria. Syrian President and strongman Bashar al-Assad rolled out his armies, which in turn killed thousands of people protesting his regime.
The U.S. levied new sanctions against Syria, and Obama and Clinton called Assad's leadership illegitimate, then finally called for him to step down. U.S. relations with Syria, however, have been so bad and so limited for so long, there is little else the U.S. can do. European nations and Turkey have challenged Assad, but so far he remains in power.
7: Obama Commits Troops To Uganda
In October, Obama announced he was sending 100 special forces to Uganda to help national troops there track down guerrilla leader Joseph Kony and his partisans. Kony's army -- active for more than 25 years -- are notorious for kidnapping children and forcing them into military service or slavery.
Obama's commitment was widely seen as a "thank you" to Uganda for sending troops to help an African coalition of nations stop guerrilla activity in the failed state of Somalia. Obama also took fire from Congress, which claimed he had violated the War Powers Act for the second time in a year.
6: U.S. Counters Palestinian U.N. Bid
In September, Palestine petitioned the United Nations for statehood status within the organization. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made the request hoping the elevated status would enable Palestine to get permanently drawn national boundaries in the Middle East.
The U.S. -- a permanent member of the U.N. security council -- vowed to block any vote on the request, which Obama said precludes any direct dialog between Palestine and Israel. Still, just a few months previous, Obama had irritated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by saying Israel would sooner or later have to accept a Palestinian state. He suggested a good place to start drawing up a Palestinian state was with pre-1967 war borders. Netanyahu adamantly refused, saying such a plan would deprive Israel of its geographic security.
5: Relations With Iran Deteriorate (Big Surprise)
The United States hasn't had normal relations with Iran since the Hostage Crisis of 1979-81. That didn't stop relations from getting worse.
As the year progressed, new fears arose that Iran was inching closer to acquiring nuclear weapons. With no embassy and a multitude of sanctions already in place against Iran, there is not much else the U.S. can do. When Great Britain, however, levied new sanctions on Iran, protesters there stormed the British embassy in Tehran, prompting the Brits to withdraw most of their diplomatic personnel.
Iran did release two American hikers they had "convicted" for espionage and held for over a year, but only after back-channel negotiations through the Swiss and payment of what they called bail money.
As a coda to the mistrust, when the U.S. set up a "virtual embassy" for Iran on the internet in December, the Iranian government quickly blocked it. Don't look for the Iranian-western relationship to get sunny anytime soon.
Oh yeah, now they've got one of our drone aircraft.
4: Kim Jong Il Dies
From sabre-rattling to nuclear testing, North Korea's Kim Jong Il was a perennial thorn in America's diplomatic side. His death of a massive heart attack on December 17 didn't necessarily remove the thorn, but it neither did it drive it deeper.
No one is sure what Kim's third son and successor Kim Jong Un will do with North Korea's nuclear program, its relations with South Korea, or any number of diplomatic issues.
Most observers say the U.S. must take plenty of time and patience dealing with the new Kim. By the end of 2012 we might know which way Kim Jong Un's foreign policy tendencies run.
3: Iraqi War Ends
Certainly the United States will be involved in the political rebuilding of Iraq for some time, but in October Obama and newly installed Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that American troops would be out of Iraq by December 31.
That wasn't necessarily Obama's or Panetta's idea, though. In fact, the Pentagon wanted troops to stand by in Iraq for a few more years to facilitate governmental transition. Iraq, however, held the U.S. to a "status of forces" agreement that George W. Bush approved.
Regardless of whose idea it was -- it's over.
2: Navy Seals Kill Bin Laden; U.S. Relations With Pakistan Worsen
On May 1, U.S. Navy Seals killed Osama Bin Laden, capping the global manhunt for the 9/11 mastermind. That fulfilled Obama's campaign promise that he would catch and kill the terrorist leader.
It also damaged the already shaky American relations with Pakistan, a supposed partner in the war on terror. After all, the U.S. found Bin Laden in a Pakistani compound where he had been for years. Then, Pakistan let China get a look at the tail section of a new-era helicopter the Seals had to ditch at the compound.
At the end of the year, a mistaken NATO raid that killed Pakistanis along the Afghan border prompted Pakistan to withdraw from the second Bonn Conference on the future of Afghanistan. That's dicey, since neighboring Pakistan will play a role in any reconstructed Afghanistan.
1: U.S. Leads NATO In Libyan Intervention
In March, when Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi threatened to annihilate Libyans protesting his 42-year regime, Obama announced that U.S. forces, working as part of NATO, would establish a no-fly zone over Libya to keep his air force out of the sky. Obama also said the U.S. would then pull back and let other NATO nations handle the rest of the mission.
Of course, NATO support ultimately enabled Libyan rebels to oust -- then kill -- Qaddafi. But along the way, Obama faced charges from detractors that he was leading from behind, violating the War Powers Act, or going back on his own promise to get the U.S. out of global warfare.
In truth, Obama was acting on his own plan of making the U.S. a "multilateral" player in world events instead acting "unilaterally." Qaddafi's fall proved him right.
