22
expressions of the interviewees. This process was carried out with accordant
efforts and with a high level of awareness in determining the explicit and implicit
messages embedded in the statements.
Stage 3—Data entry and Coding: The interview transcripts, the relevant contents of
the media, and institutional documents were coded and analyzed. These enabled
the researcher to search and make associations among the relevant statements by
theme. It also enabled the researcher to determine any existing gaps and any
overlaps in the available qualitative data.
Stage 4—Interpretation and testing for assumptions: Subsequent to the systematic
categorization of the data set, the researcher tested for the assumptions that were
defined in the relevant literature. By means of the grounded theory approach, the
researcher investigated the primary explanatory factors in three policy areas:
counterterrorism, nuclear proliferation, and energy security, as well as the evidence of foreign policy realignment. Throughout this process, the researcher also
sought alternative explanations as regards the growing partnerships between the
governments of the US and the states in the Caspian Sea region in areas of energy
and security. The data collected during the interviews revealed numerous other
explanatory factors that had not been reported in the existing literature.
Stage 5—Reporting: The qualitative texts that were analyzed have been placed and
contextualized in the body of the present dissertation. The researcher also analytically counterpoised the arguments of the existing and former policymakers
and analysts (Ekici 2010:19).
Obama’s foreign policy strategy was presented in the 2010 National Security
Strategy document and marked a departure from the Bush doctrine, as drafted in the
US National Security Strategy documents of 2002 and 2006. The goal of this strategy was to emphasize the leadership the United States ought to take in a changing
world, a world in which American power is challenged by new actors, including
from emerging regional powers such as the Brix Group (Brazil, Russia, India,
China, and South Africa). Barack Obama’s presidency was marked by a realigned
focus and orientation from the Middle East to the Far East, to uphold US interests
in the Asia-Pacific region.
To understand how Obama’s foreign policy diverged from the Bush doctrine, one
must recognize the relative power of the United States in both eras. This idea was
introduced in the early 2000s by some of the most famous foreign policy analysts
such as Brzezinski, Joseph Nye, and recently Fareed Zakaria in the famous article
“The Post-American World and the Rise of the Rest.” In a complex world of interdependence, claims the latter, “the United States cannot go ahead alone.” This was
recognized when the Obama administration’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
said: “We must recognize two inevitable truths that describe our world: first, no
nation can face the challenges of the world alone. These issues are very complicated. Many actors are competing for influence, from rising powers to corporations
and criminal channels, from non-governmental organizations to al-Qaeda, from
state-run media to people with Twitter and Facebook, more. Nations are worried
about similar global threats, from nonproliferation of nuclear weapons to counterterrorism” (www.iirjournal.ir 2018).
1 Theoretical Framework
expressions of the interviewees. This process was carried out with accordant
efforts and with a high level of awareness in determining the explicit and implicit
messages embedded in the statements.
Stage 3—Data entry and Coding: The interview transcripts, the relevant contents of
the media, and institutional documents were coded and analyzed. These enabled
the researcher to search and make associations among the relevant statements by
theme. It also enabled the researcher to determine any existing gaps and any
overlaps in the available qualitative data.
Stage 4—Interpretation and testing for assumptions: Subsequent to the systematic
categorization of the data set, the researcher tested for the assumptions that were
defined in the relevant literature. By means of the grounded theory approach, the
researcher investigated the primary explanatory factors in three policy areas:
counterterrorism, nuclear proliferation, and energy security, as well as the evidence of foreign policy realignment. Throughout this process, the researcher also
sought alternative explanations as regards the growing partnerships between the
governments of the US and the states in the Caspian Sea region in areas of energy
and security. The data collected during the interviews revealed numerous other
explanatory factors that had not been reported in the existing literature.
Stage 5—Reporting: The qualitative texts that were analyzed have been placed and
contextualized in the body of the present dissertation. The researcher also analytically counterpoised the arguments of the existing and former policymakers
and analysts (Ekici 2010:19).
Obama’s foreign policy strategy was presented in the 2010 National Security
Strategy document and marked a departure from the Bush doctrine, as drafted in the
US National Security Strategy documents of 2002 and 2006. The goal of this strategy was to emphasize the leadership the United States ought to take in a changing
world, a world in which American power is challenged by new actors, including
from emerging regional powers such as the Brix Group (Brazil, Russia, India,
China, and South Africa). Barack Obama’s presidency was marked by a realigned
focus and orientation from the Middle East to the Far East, to uphold US interests
in the Asia-Pacific region.
To understand how Obama’s foreign policy diverged from the Bush doctrine, one
must recognize the relative power of the United States in both eras. This idea was
introduced in the early 2000s by some of the most famous foreign policy analysts
such as Brzezinski, Joseph Nye, and recently Fareed Zakaria in the famous article
“The Post-American World and the Rise of the Rest.” In a complex world of interdependence, claims the latter, “the United States cannot go ahead alone.” This was
recognized when the Obama administration’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
said: “We must recognize two inevitable truths that describe our world: first, no
nation can face the challenges of the world alone. These issues are very complicated. Many actors are competing for influence, from rising powers to corporations
and criminal channels, from non-governmental organizations to al-Qaeda, from
state-run media to people with Twitter and Facebook, more. Nations are worried
about similar global threats, from nonproliferation of nuclear weapons to counterterrorism” (www.iirjournal.ir 2018).
1 Theoretical Framework