1146 ★ CHAPTER 28 A New Century and New Crises
States seem petty and vindictive in the eyes of Latin Americans. In the follow-
ing year, the administration, in conjunction with the European Union, Russia,
and China, worked out an arrangement with Iran to ensure that that nation’s
nuclear energy program was confined to peaceful purposes and did not lead
to the manufacture of nuclear weapons. This was a remarkable achievement
in view of the decades of hostility between the United States and Iran dating
back to the hostage crisis of 1979–1981. Also in 2015, the United States played
a major role in the forging of an agreement committing every country in the
world to reduce emissions (notably from the burning of coal and oil) that con-
tributed to global warming. All told, Obama’s conduct of foreign affairs proved
to be considerably more bellicose than both his supporters and opponents had
expected.
Events overseas presented new challenges and opportunities for the Obama
administration. Beginning in 2011, to the surprise of almost everyone, popular
revolts swept the Middle East. The uprisings brought millions of people into
the streets, and toppled long- serving dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.
Freedom emerged as the rallying cry of those challenging autocratic govern-
ments. “I’m in Tahrir Square,” one demonstrator yelled into his cellphone
while standing at the epicenter of the Egyptian revolution. “In freedom, in
freedom, in freedom.” Once again, the tension between the ideals of freedom
and democracy and American strategic interests posed a difficult challenge for
policymakers. After some hesitation, the United States sided with those seek-
ing the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s long- serving dictator and a staunch
American ally. It then stood on the sidelines throughout 2011 and 2012 as
Egypt lurched from popular uprising to military rule, to electoral victory by
the Muslim Brotherhood, a previously illegal Islamic group, with the final
outcome of the revolution always in doubt. When a military coup in 2014
ousted the elected president and instituted a regime even more repressive than
Mubarak’s, the Obama administration suspended shipments of military equip-
ment to Egypt, but soon resumed them. In general, like his predecessors during
the Cold War, Obama used “human rights” as a political weapon, condemning
abuses by adversaries like China while remaining largely silent in the face of
serious abuses by allies in the “war on terror” such as Pakistan, Ethiopia, and
Saudi Arabia.
The Rise of ISIS
In his second term, Obama faced a new crisis when the self- proclaimed Islamic
State took control of parts of Iraq, Syria, and Libya. ISIS, as it was called, con-
ducted campaigns of exceptional brutality, beheading prisoners of war and
driving religious minorities out of territory it conquered. The videos of these