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 The 29-page memo to Congress, required under law, broadly outlined
Obama's foreign policy priorities for the final two years of his
presidency.
Obama described the most pressing challenges of violent extremism,
Russian aggression, cyberattacks and climate change and said they
were best addressed by mobilizing international coalitions.
But he said the United States needed "strategic patience and
persistence" as it does not have infinite resources and said many
problems could not be resolved through military might.
"We must always resist the overreach that comes when we make
decisions based upon fear," Obama said.
In the long run, he said U.S. efforts to counter the ideology behind
violent extremism were "more important than our capacity to remove
terrorists from the battlefield."
The document updated a lengthier one issued in 2010, when Obama was
only 15 months into the job. Since then, he has been frequently
criticized at home and abroad for excess caution.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a frequent Obama critic, said
Obama's approach had led to global chaos and allowed bad actors to
flourish, including Islamic State militants, also known as ISIL.
"I doubt ISIL, the Iranian mullahs, or Vladimir Putin will be
intimidated by President Obama's strategy of 'strategic patience,'"
Graham said in a statement.
RICE: CRITICS LACK PERSPECTIVE
Obama renewed the U.S. commitment to lead an international coalition
to defeat Islamic State and work with European allies to isolate
Russia over its support for rebels in eastern Ukraine - crises that
did not exist in 2010.
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Top White House national security adviser Susan Rice said the White
House and European allies were assessing how to ramp up pressure on
Moscow through sanctions or military aid.
"We have not taken a decision yet to up that, the nature of that
assistance, to include lethal defensive equipment," Rice said in a
speech at the Brookings Institution think-tank. Any decision would
be taken only after consultation with European allies, she said.
Rice said those who criticized Obama for his reflective approach to
emerging crises lacked a broad perspective and were too reactive.
"We cannot afford to be buffeted by alarmism in a nearly
instantaneous news cycle," Rice said.
She said the White House would redouble its efforts on Obama's
economic, military and diplomatic "rebalance" to Asia, where he
seeks to counter China's growing power.
As part of those efforts, Rice said Obama had invited Japan's Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to come to the
country on state visits.
(Additional reporting by Krista Hughes, Patricia Zengerle, David
Brunnstrom and Susan Heavey; Editing by David Storey and Tom Brown)
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