This is Jonathan Cape Heart and welcome to Cape Up. I'm recording this actually from the side of the road in Fargo starting my Christmas vacation

happy holidays hope you're all getting some time off too so if you're like me

you're mystified by President Obama's foreign policy, especially when it comes to Syria and that

infamous red line he drew.

Well, Derek Scholay, former Obama Defense Department official, and author of The Long

Game, how Obama defied Washington and redefined America's role in the world

is here to explain it all, and why President-elect Trump's picks

to head the Pentagon and Homeland Security

are actually good hires. You can hear that right now. Derek Shilay, thanks for being on Cape Up. Thanks for coming in.

It's great to be here.

So when did your book come out June?

Came out July.

July.

July. And so the name of it is the long game.

How Obama defied Washington and redefined America's role in the world.

Give me the two minute synopsis of your argument in this book.

Sure, so the title of The Long Game has a double meaning.

What I try to do in the book is talk about in foreign policy,

President Obama's strategy, which I call the long game

strategy. On many policy issues he's been determined to put the US on a course for

long-term success, even if that means in the moment there's been a lot of criticism and

certainty about what we're doing in the day-to-day and some of the issues like

...