Finally, a foreign policy president?

NEW YORK: Despite last week’s elections, President Obama has the time and scope to do big things over the next two years. But they will have to be in the world beyond Washington. Next week’s trip to Asia would be a good place to start. In fact, it’s odd that Obama has not already devoted more time, energy and attention to foreign policy. It has been clear for a while now that there is little prospect of working with the Republican Party on major domestic initiatives. This is hardly unprecedented. Administrations often devote their last few years in office to international affairs, an arena where they have latitude for unilateral action.

If Obama wants significant accomplishments in foreign policy in his last years, he will first need the discipline with which he began his presidency. The incremental, escalating interventionism in Syria and Iraq—were it to continue—would absorb the White House’s attention, the public’s interest and the country’s military resources. It would also not succeed, if by success we mean the triumph of pro-democratic forces in the Syrian civil war.