Abstract
Although the election of Barack Obama to the US presidency represents a landmark event in the history of that country, questions remain over its broader political significance. What is the likelihood of Obama's foreign and national security policies differing fundamentally from those of the Bush administrations? Does Obama's election signal a ‘post-racial’ phase in American national life? What are the factors that suggest opportunities to change and expand American identities as opposed to those that limit Obama's sphere of action? This article introduces the special issue and suggests that although Obama's room for manoeuvre is limited by legacies inherited from the Bush administration, Obama's own appointments to high office as well as other actions, despite the availability of alternative courses, indicate that he is not the transformational president he claimed to be. American identities, therefore, are deeply embedded and remain heavily imbued with racial, religious and imperial features.
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Notes
For full analysis of PPNS (Parmar, 2009).
The ‘Watergate scandal’ comprised of the political fall-out resulting from a series of break-ins at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters authorised by supporters of President Richard Nixon with his knowledge.
According to ABC News, large majorities in France, Canada and elsewhere supported an Obama victory at the polls in November 2008; ‘Could an Obama Win Restore America's Global Image?’ abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=6118357&page=1, accessed 6 July 2010.
Belcher argued, before the November 2008 presidential elections, that he did not ‘think a black man can be president of the United States of America. However, I think an exceptional individual who also happens to be black can be president…’ in Marc Ambinder (2009).
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the AHRC Research Network on the Presidency of Barack Obama. The Network partners include the Universities of Manchester, Edge Hill and Warwick, the Roosevelt Study Centre at Middelburg, the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford, LSE IDEAS, and the Eccles Centre for North American Studies at the British Library. http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/disciplines/politics/research/obama/.
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Parmar, I. American power and identities in the age of Obama. Int Polit 48, 153–163 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2011.10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2011.10