President Barack Obama is preparing to set out his vision for America’s role in the world following the final withdrawal from Afghanistan, in a commencement address to the US military academy at West Point on Wednesday.



In a speech that is being seen as the president’s rebuttal to critics who have attacked his foreign policy as perilously adrift, Obama is expected to articulate his vision of a “new stage” in America’s relations with the world post-Iraq and Afghanistan. Aides have indicated he will talk about the need for balance, between the US continuing to be internationalist and engaged but stopping short of overextending itself as it did with the occupation of Iraq.

The West Point address comes on the heels of a 33-hour trip to and from Afghanistan that ended with Obama's return to the White House on Monday morning. He used his fourth visit to the country, and his first since his re-election in 2012, to sound out General Joseph Dunford, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, and the US ambassador to Kabul, James Cunningham, over the latest security analysis.

There has been speculation that Obama will use the West Point speech to announce the pending decision on how many US troops will be left in Afghanistan once withdrawal is complete by the end of this year. The issue has been fraught given the refusal of the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, last year to sign a bilateral security agreement allowing US troops to remain in the country in 2015, to train local forces and carry out anti-terrorism exercises.

The two presidents did not meet during Obama’s trip, Karzai having declined an invitation to visit Bagram air base, where the US leader addressed some of the 38,000 American personnel still stationed in the country. But they did have a 15- to 20-minute telephone conversation while Obama was on his way back to the US aboard Air Force One, in which Obama promised to inform Karzai of his decision on troop numbers – expected to be between 5,000 and 10,000 – before he announces it.

Any retention of troops in Afghanistan would be dependent on Karzai’s successor, who will be chosen in a second round of presidential elections next month, signing the bilateral security agreement. Both the candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, have indicated that they will.

The Afghan visit and Wednesday’s West Point appearance come at the start of a flurry of international activity by the White House that will include a G7 summit in Brussels, a trip to Poland and the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy on 6 June. Across these various events, Obama will be hoping to present a foreign policy that is sure-footed and confident, rather than unravelling as his critics have suggested.

The president has come under fire in recent months for appearing weak over Syria, where civil war continues three years in and Bashar al-Assad remains in power despite crossing Obama's “red line” and using chemical weapons. Obama has also been accused of showing a lack of resolve over Ukraine, where Russia’s intervention in Crimea has gone unpunished other than through the imposition of sanctions on individuals close to President Vladimir Putin.

Over the weekend, White House staff, speaking anonymously, said Obama would use the West Point speech to counter suggestions of weakness.

“You will hear the president discuss how the United States will use all the tools in our arsenal without overreaching. He will lay out why the right policy is one that is both interventionist and internationalist, but not isolationist or unilateral,” reporters were told.

In his visit to Bagram, Obama largely avoided being drawn into the vexed question of the future of US involvement in Afghanistan, concentrating instead on honouring the troops ahead of Monday’s Memorial Day. He told a rally at the air base that after 13 years, they were “completing the mission”.

“For many of you, this will be your last tour in Afghanistan,” he said, prompting a loud cheer. “And by the end of this year, the transition will be complete and Afghans will take full responsibility for their security, and our combat mission will be over.

“America’s war in Afghanistan will come to a responsible end.”