“I have come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and the Muslim World, one based on mutual interests and mutual respect.”
Since President Barack Obama traveled to Cairo to announce a ‘new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world’, the June 2009 landmark speech has been used both as a blueprint and reference point for the administration’s foreing policy in the Middle East. This thesis contributes to the understanding of Obama’s idea of a ‘new beginning’ as part of the historical narratives that define the United States’s relationship with the region.
If we take the President’s promise as starting point and consider his discursive intervention in the Egyptian capital as a break in the historical narrative of the United States’ relationship with the Middle East, three key questions arise: What was ‘old’, what was ‘new’, and what was the reach of this change beyond Obama’s rhetoric? The result of the analysis is a multi-dimensional understanding of the relationship between an idea with an inherent historical claim on the one side, and the historical context and narratives that shaped and were in turn influenced/affected by this idea. Obama’s vision of ‘new beginning’ in the U.S. foreign policy approach towards the Middle East was born out of its historical context, and not only shaped the contemporary discourse, but also the lives of millions in the United States, the Middle East, and around the world. A profound understanding of that vision is not only of scientific interest, but also of perennial political relevance.
Keywords: Global History, Middle Eastern History, U.S. Foreign Policy, Obama Presidency, Obama Doctrine International Relations, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Iran Nuclear Program
Ten years ago, President Barack Obama’s unprecedented address to the Muslim world from Cairo was hailed as a landmark in US–Middle Eastern relations and described by contemporary observers as a historical break in US foreign policy in the region. Yet it soon became clear that the president’s vision for a “new beginning based on mutual interest and mutual respect” would face many practical constraints.
Analysing the thematic and rhetorical development of Obama’s speeches during the formative period between summer 2008 and 2009, as well as the public and academic perception of and reaction to these moments, the paper examines the underlying interests and motivations for the president’s foreign policy approach in the Middle East. It argues that despite the low priority given to foreign policy issues during the economic crisis occurring at the time, the key pillars of Obama’s ambitious vision for the Middle East were rooted in pronounced US interests as well as the president’s personal convictions, rather than opportunistic calculations. It thus counters retrospective post-2011 criticism which argues that Obama’s words were never meant to be put into practice. The study contributes to the establishment of a solid empirical and conceptual base for further research on the United States’ foreign policy in the Middle East under the Obama administration.
Citation: Lukacs, Nils. “Obama’s Road to Cairo: The President’s Rhetorical Journey, 2008–2009.” GIGA Working Papers. No. 316 (2019).
