Author: Aaron L. Connelly, CSIS, Jakarta

President Barack Obama’s political philosophy has been the subject of intense debate in the United States. The protean nature of the President’s pragmatism leaves hardened ideologues frustrated, unable to plot his views on a simple x-y axis. But if you want to know where Obama stands, you need only examine the moral philosophy that undergirds his politics. In this, the most explicit common thread has been the need for empathy in policymaking—placing the ‘empathy deficit’ alongside the budget and trade deficits as structural problems that American strategy must address.

This is no less true of Obama’s instincts on foreign policy than it has been of his instincts on healthcare or judicial nominees; in the preface to the second printing of Dreams from My Father, Obama speaks at length about the need for empathy in foreign policy. Read more…