Perang Irak telah membatasi baik kemauan politik, kredibilitas, serta kapabilitas militer AS dalam melancarkan perang baru. Apalagi dengan naiknya Barack Obama sebagai orang nomor satu negara adidaya tersebut, artikulasi kebijakan luar negeri dan keamanan nasional AS menjadi sangat "anything but Bush." Berdasarkan hal tersebut, penelitian ini ingin melihat bagaimana cara Obama menggunakan military power Amerika pasca efek traumatis Perang Irak.Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan suatu paradoks yang sangat menarik. Dalam kasus di mana kepentingan AS dipertaruhkan, tujuan dan cara Obama sebenarnya tidak terlalu beda dengan pendahulunya, George W. Bush. Dalam hal ini, Obama akan sangat bersedia untuk menggunakan tindakan unilateral. Sebaliknya, dalam kasus di mana kepentingan AS tidak begitu signifikan, Obama akan cenderung menggunakan cara-cara multilateral. Akan tetapi, terlepas dari pendekatan berbeda yang digunakan Obama dalam kedua kasus yang diangkat, Obama memang telah membentuk strategi baru yang "lighter, cheaper but harder" dalam kebijakan keamanan nasional AS.

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The Iraq war has limited the U.S. political will, credibility, as well as military capabilities in waging a new war. Particularly with Barack Obama winning election and reelction, the articulation of U.S. foreign policy and national security is very much 'anything but Bush.' Therefore, this study is aimed to see and analyze how Obama used American military power after the traumatic effects of the Iraq War.The results of this study show a very interesting paradox. In cases where U.S. interests were at stake, Obama's approach was not too different from his predecessor, George W. Bush. In this case, Obama would be very willing to use unilateral action. Conversely, in cases where U.S. interests were not too significant, Obama has tended to use multilateral means. However, regardless of the different approaches used in both cases, this study finds that Obama does manage to formulate a new strategy in the American way of war which is characterized by a "lighter, cheaper but harder" strategy.