Defense expert lauds Obama’s foreign policy
By Jackson Stone | September 2, 2015Derek Chollet, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, told Duke students he thought President Barack Obama's diplomacy will stand the test of time Tuesday evening. In an event titled “Obama’s Grand Strategy: Midway Through the Fourth Quarter” sponsored by the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Chollet touched upon a variety of topics relating to the nation's current position in international affairs. He is currently serving as a counselor and senior advisor for security and defense policy at The German Marshall Fund of the United States, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington. "Obama personally felt that he had a quite difficult inheritance," Chollet said. "He is determined to leave his successor with a better inheritance.” Asked to assess the president's success in foreign affairs going into the administration's final months, Chollet noted that in football terms, “the score would be 28 to 21 with Obama winning.” In particular, he pointed to Obama's relationship-building in Asia as an area in which the United States has excelled. "The 'pivot' [Obama's East Asia policy]—that investment in resources, that military posture in Asia—is extremely important for the U.S.
