Obama's global strategy

US continues to believe it is 'exceptional' and has an innate right to world leadership despite rise of emerging economies

The current international power structure is undergoing a major transformation, with, most importantly, the overall economic power shifting toward the emerging market countries. Although the developed countries still retain the core position in the international power structure, the current rise of emerging economies has closed the gap on them.

In May 2010, the Barack Obama administration released its first report on the US' national security strategy, which pointed out that the most important feature of today's international politics is the diffusion of power. The current framework, however, lacks the flexibility to correspond to the changes taking place in the international power structure, and the Obama administration has acknowledged this and has taken the lead on reforming the existing international mechanisms by transferring some rights to the emerging powers.