Offensive Realism In American Foreign Policy In The Obama Period: The Case Of Arms Trade To The Middle East

By analysing the place of arms trade in US foreign policy, this study argues that offensive realist approach of George W. Bush era was maintained in Barack Obama era. Thus, it aims to compare the strategy and foreign policy tools used in the Middle East policies in the period of George Walker Bush and Barack Obama. In this context, this research investigates the dominant approaches to American foreign policy such as neo-realism and neo-liberalism and reveals the place of armament and arms trade in the Foreign Policy Analysis. Particularly, by making use of quantitative data it exhibits the leading role of the US in the global arms trade in the post-Cold War era that the arms trade as one of the main parameters of US foreign policy and its Middle East politics. As a result, it is claimed that the arms trade was used more effectively and immensely in the US foreign policy in Obama period and offensive realist policies of Bush period were maintained by different means.