Obama Confronts ‘Precarious’ Afghanistan, Brexit at NATO Summit
President Barack Obama will confront global challenges bedeviling his administration at his final NATO summit beginning on Friday, including a fraying European Union, a resurgent Russia, and an intractable conflict in Afghanistan.
For a president who has long preached the virtue of global collaboration and community, recent events, and the traction gained by Republican Donald Trump’s nativist and isolationist bid for the presidency, are a disappointment. In Warsaw, Obama hopes this week’s announcement that the U.S. will slow its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan will be a catalyst for new security agreements and reaffirm the virtue of multinational alliances.
“We can look upon a world that has benefited enormously from the international order that we helped to build together,” Obama said in a June 29 speech to the Canadian Parliament. “But we can see that same order increasingly strained by the accelerating forces of change.”
White House aides say the war in Afghanistan, backed by a coalition of 41 partner countries, embodies Obama’s multilateral approach to international conflicts. Obama said Wednesday he would keep about 8,400 troops in Afghanistan through the end of his administration, an acknowledgment that his successor will be left to resolve America’s longest armed conflict.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-07-07/obama-confronts-precarious-afghanistan-brexit-at-nato-summit
