The concept of American exceptionalism in Barack Obama's foreign policy

The paper dwells upon the analysis of influence of the concept of American exceptionalism on Barack Obama’s foreign policy (2009-2017). The idea of American exceptionalism was one of the key ideas for the foundation and subsequent evolution of the USA and therefore always has influenced the formation of American foreign policy. Nevertheless, in the post-bipolar world American leaders have actively used the ideas of American exceptionalism in order to justify their foreign policy. Basing on foreign sources and historiography the author shows the influence of such an idea as American exceptionalism on the foreign policy of the USA in 2009-2017. To reveal the consistent patterns the historical-genetic method had been applied. In order to demonstrate the difference in the interpretation of the idea between the 43rd and 44th presidents, the comparative-historical method had been applied. The novelty lies in the fact that in previous studies the influence of the phenomenon of “American exceptionalism” on the formation of B. Obama’s foreign policy was not analyzed in detail, and the continuity of the use of the assessed concept as a foreign policy instrument by George W. Bush was not traced. The research is relevant due to the fact that the election of Donald Trump with his motto America First considerably amplified the influence of American exceptionalism on American foreign policy. The author concludes that despite Obama’s aspiration to use this idea to strengthen international cooperation, the tendency to use American exceptionalism for justification of military actions, which was notable during the presidency of George W. Bush, still remains.