Story highlights Kristian: Obama's defenders say he is sane and rational; his critics say he is inactive

By what mad metric is seven wars inactivity?

Bonnie Kristian is a fellow at Defense Priorities. She is a weekend editor at The Week and a columnist at Rare, and her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, Politico, Relevant Magazine, The Hill, and The American Conservative, among other outlets. The opinions in this article belong to the author.

(CNN) The end of President Barack Obama's tenure in office is a surprising time, with assessments of his achievements unexpectedly colored by how they compare to the unpredictability and tabloid glamour of President-elect Donald Trump.

It is perhaps this contrast which has fed an emerging narrative of Obama as a fundamentally quiet president, possessed of a character described by his supporters as sane reasonable , and calm . By contrast, his detractors see the outgoing President as a man plagued by timidity and paralyzed by inaction , especially where foreign policy is concerned.

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The Obama approach to war and diplomacy, these critics contend, has been defined by reticence and lassitude with no clear conviction of US global leadership.

The fundamental problem with this story is how poorly it fits with the facts of Obama's foreign policy career. Though the characterization of the President's dispassionate personal temperament seems fair , to confuse his manner with his record would be a grave mistake.

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The Obama foreign policy legacy, though certainly different in superficial style from that of his predecessor, is fundamentally an extension of the reckless interventionism he was first elected to repudiate.