United States

Among the foreign policy challenges faced by the United States in 2014 was how to respond to the upheaval in Ukraine that eventually resulted in the self-declared independence of the autonomous republic of Crimea, which was then annexed by Russia. The United States was one of many countries that condemned the involvement of Russia and Russian troops in the events in Crimea, and the United States also imposed sanctions on prominent individual Russians while joining the other members of the Group of Eight in suspending Russia from that organization.

The rise of ISIL (ISIS), the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap, and imposition of stricter carbon emission standards

In the summer of 2014, nearly three years after the last U.S. troops had left Iraq, events in that country prompted renewed U.S. intervention. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS])—an entity formed by al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Syrian Nusrah Front in April 2013—led a spreading uprising by Sunni militants that had begun taking control of Iraqi cities in January 2014. When the threat to the controversial regime of Prime Minister Nūrī al-Mālikī became dire in mid-June 2014, after ISIL fighters seized the northern city of Mosul (the second largest city in Iraq) and then Tikrīt (only about 100 miles [160 km] north of Baghdad), the United States took action. Obama—who was blamed for the uprising by some critics who claimed that he had removed U.S. forces too soon—sent some 300 U.S. Special Operations soldiers to Iraq as advisers, despite his desire not to return troops there.

The Obama administration also was criticized for a swap of prisoners with the Taliban at the end of May. Five Taliban leaders were freed from confinement at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in exchange for U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive in Afghanistan since 2009. Politicians from both parties were critical of the administration’s failure to consult Congress (as law required) before freeing Guantánamo detainees, and some Republicans claimed that too much had been given up for Bergdahl, the circumstances of whose capture had come under suspicion.

Many Republicans condemned the president’s use of executive authority to take action on issues not addressed by Congress, notably his imposition of more-stringent carbon emissions standards for power plants beginning in 2030, along with an increase in the minimum wage (to $10.10 per hour) for federal contract workers. In June Speaker of the House Boehner embodied the anger of many Republicans at the president’s initiatives by threatening to sue him for misusing his executive powers.

The child migrant border surge, air strikes on ISIL (ISIS), and the 2014 midterm elections

As spring turned to summer, the United States was confronted with a growing crisis on its border with Mexico. Since October 2013 more than 50,000 unaccompanied children—most of them from Central America and many of them fleeing drug-related gang violence—had been taken into custody while trying to enter the United States illegally. The crisis arose against the backdrop of Congress’s acknowledgment that immigration reform had again stalled.

migrant childrenU.S. Border Patrol agents processing a group of Central American migrants who entered the U.S. near McAllen, Texas, on June 18, 2014.Jennifer Whitney—The New York Times/Redux

In September Obama ratcheted up the campaign against ISIL, authorizing air strikes inside Syria for the first time and an increase of those in Iraq. He continued to pledge that he would not return U.S. combat troops to the region but asked Congress to approve some $500 million for the training and arming of “moderate” Syrians. As U.S.-led attacks increased, Obama worked to grow the coalition of countries that had committed to confronting ISIL. By the end of the month, some 20 countries were contributing air support or military equipment to the coalition effort, including France, Britain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, and Bahrain. Dozens of other countries provided humanitarian aid.