Barack Obama administration's foreign policy priorities for 2008-2012.

The beginnings of modern U.S. foreign policy lie in the peculiarities of the formation of society and state, geographical location, historical process, and also conditioned the formation of basic principles, which have been followed and continue to be followed by successive presidents. Naturally, the situation both in the U.S. itself and in the surrounding world predetermines a different combination of the main components of the foreign policy, which include the priority of national interests, the idea of electability, the unconditional preservation of the principle of "free hand", the use of force, etc. In order to understand the prospects of U.S. foreign policy it is necessary to take into account that the ideals of freedom, equality and justice, which inspired the "Founding Fathers" of the United States in the struggle for independence, are at the core of the American perception of the surrounding world.