Editor's Note:

Amid the growing threat of a new war in the Middle East, some see a surge of neoconservative power in the US. Is neoconservatism returning to the center of government? What's the basis of the Obama administration's foreign policy? Global Times (GT) reporter Xu Ming interviewed Justin Vaïsse (Vaïsse), director of research for the Center on the US and Europe and an expert in foreign policy and the history of neoconservatism in the US at the Brookings Institution, on these questions.

GT: Is neoconservatism influencing or has it already influenced US foreign policies? In your opinion, has Obama embraced an alliance of neocons and liberals in his policy?

Vaïsse: Certainly not. In the beginning, his foreign policy was marked by a clear strand of realism: He de-emphasized democracy promotion, extended a hand to the Iranian regime and operated a "reset" of relations with Russia. It is only with the popular revolts, first in Tehran in June 2009, which caught him wrong-footed, and then in the Arab world, that he sided more clearly with democratic movements.

Obama is above all a pragmatist, adapting his prudent stance to changing events, which served him well with the Arab Spring.

There are liberal interventionist elements in his team, like Samantha Power, Susan Rice, Michael McFaul, or even US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and on some issues, they happen to be close to the neoconservatives, but he doesn't necessarily follow their advice.

On Syria for example, he has remained very cautious. And he still has a solid current of realism in his strategy, exemplified by the prudent exit from the two wars, which were dragging US power down, in Iraq and Afghanistan. More generally, this is a time for cutting  expensive deployments abroad, not asserting US military power all over the world. 

GT: Neoconservatism is regarded by many as having been "buried in the sands of Iraq." How do you see the current situation and development of neoconservatism in the US?

Vaïsse: Neoconservatism, a school of thought emphasizing the need for US primacy and the importance of democracy, never really left the scene, and it is still present in the Washington foreign policy debates.

It has little or no influence on the Obama administration, but it does have some influence on the Republican party, including front-runner candidate Mitt Romney.

More generally, neoconservatives are very present, by their writings and media interventions, in important national debates like defense spending cuts, which they vociferously oppose, Iran, for which most neoconservatives advocate a more muscular answer, or the Arab Spring, where they have generally been at the forefront of support for democratic uprisings.