Once upon a time in another political era known as 2008, we at Intelligent

Square held a debate on a just then concluding presidency with a very, very

toughly worded proposition which was George W. Bush is the worst president of

the last 50 years. And after robust debate, that motion was actually defeated.

Well now it is Barack Obama's turn with an eight-year record of his own in

which we're going to judge his decisions on a number of international issues.

Iran and Russia and Cuba and climate change and Syria and China and that wins

and how's of using military force and the question is how did he do overall?

Well that sounds like the makings of a debate so we're going to have it. Another

toughly worded resolution, Obama's foreign policy is a failure. A debate from

Intelligent Square US, I'm John Don Van. We are at the Kaufman Music Center in

New York City with four superbly qualified debaters who will argue for and

against that motion as always we go in three rounds and then our live audience

here in New York votes to choose the winner and only one side wins. The motion

again, Obama's foreign policy is a failure. First let's welcome the team arguing

for the motion. Hello to Elliot Cohen. Elliot welcome back to Intelligent

Square for the second time your professor at Hopkins, your former counselor at

the Department of State, you're written a lot of books, the most recent one,

coming out the big stick, the limits of soft power and the necessity of

military force and for those of us who don't remember big stick refers to what?

It refers to a speech that was given by theodore Roosevelt in 1901 and in

which he very famously said, speaks softly but carry a big stick and of course

...