As the first African American President, Obama made an indelible history inscribed in global leadership literature. Many researchers have evaluated his leadership from different approaches based on the critical issues that marked it. Some of the sources are shown in the bibliography herein.
Workman, A., Blashki, G., Bowen, K. J., Karoly, D. J., & Wiseman, J. (2020). Political leadership on climate change: the role of health in Obama-era US climate policies. Environmental Research Letters, 15(10), 105003.
The source by Workman et al. focuses on President Obama’s leadership’s role in changing people’s perceptions about climate. According to this journal, political leadership has been inadequate in the fight for more responsible climate management. Many presidents and political leaders have demonstrated a low focus on climate protection, but President Obama shocked the world with his pro-climate policies. The authors explain President Obama’s focus on climate change, giving precise details about President Obama’s contribution. For instance, the article explains the changes the administration made to the Act to Improve, Strengthen, and Accelerate Programs for the Prevention and Abatement of Air Pollution of 1963, also known as the Clean Air Act (CAA), to make it more responsive to the issues in a contemporary context. By outlining President Obama’s administration’s three primary changes to the CAA in 2013, this source shows its keenness to detail and provides adequate evidence to support its ideologies.
The other rationale for choosing this article is that, as a journal article, it consists of valuable information vetted through reviews, making it verifiable and authentic. The article’s structure also makes it useful in the current research because it consists of sections like introduction, background, method, results, discussion, and conclusion. The structure makes it possible for the reader to assess the reliability of the information and verify its source and the process used to compile the article. The article provides details that confirm President Obama’s leadership effectiveness, adding to other sources that portray his unique approach to critical issues affecting the US and other countries. Since the article was published within the past five years, it is relevant and up to date. The limitation of this article is that it focuses on climate only and does not delve deeply into President Obama’s leadership styles. Although the explanations imply Obama’s leadership effectiveness, the article does not provide details about Obama’s leadership style. However, this limitation does not suppress the article’s impact in showing President Obama’s effectiveness in changing the US and the world for the better.
Barfield, C., & Levy, P. I. (2022). Tales of the South Pacific: President Obama and the transpacific partnership. American Enterprise Institute.
The source is among the most comprehensive coverages of how President Obama’s administration operated and why Obama was a great leader. As part of analyzing his leadership skills and suitable approaches, this source contributes by explaining the agendas he fought for. This source is helpful in the current research because it explains how Obama’s administration lobbied for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). The source adds to the multifaceted analysis of how Obama’s administration changed the country’s trajectory in different ways. The authors focus on the trade-related approaches that Obama used to change how the country operated. The source compares Obama’s administration with previous presidents, especially President Bush. This information is useful in portraying President Obama in the light of what he stood for and what he did to portray his leadership approaches. As stated in other sources in this research, President Obama had unique perceptions about things that previous presidents did not value.
The source is relevant because it is within the past five years, implying the details are relevant. After all, they are based on recent details. Also, the source is from a legitimate source, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Research, a platform known for its high-quality information about enterprises. Obama’s willingness to engage with the TPP members and invite new members shows his transformative leadership skills, aimed at bringing new and valuable changes to the US. The source has a logical flow of ideas, and its structure makes it easy for the reader to understand how the research pieces are interwoven to portray President Obama as a good leader. In the conclusion section, the authors associate the changes by the President with improved global trade liberalization. This assertion shows the source’s relevance in the current analysis because it portrays President Obama as impactful globally. The primary limitation of this source is that it does not explain the research process or method used to collect information. However, this limitation does not affect its quality because the authors provided over 35 academic sources to support the information.
Blomdahl, M. (2020). Bureaucratic Politics, Presidential Leadership Style and Crisis Decision-Making: Why Obama said Yes to Libya and no to Syria. American Studies in Scandinavia, 52(1), 75-98.
The source explains President Obama’s leadership style using two examples of contexts where the President made outstanding decisions. The first one is when his administration authorized US armed forces to invade Libya in 2011 but sought Congress’s approval in 2013 to invade Syria. The author uses the two instances to point out that a president’s leadership style affects their decision-making skills. Through the bureaucratic politics model (BPM), the author explains how a president’s decision-making portrays their personality and how decisions are tailored to the idiosyncratic needs of a particular president. This explanation gives insights into President Obama’s leadership and portrays his leadership approach as a reflection of his personality. This information is important to the current analysis because it supports views presented in other sources, portraying the President’s personality as unique and suitable for the President’s role. The author gives valuable details about President Obama’s leadership, which brings out his thinking pattern and leadership approach, focusing on things that matter most to the US and the world. Also, the source shows how his leadership may have failed to apply equality, implying a failure in President Obama’s leadership.
One strength of this source is its formal structure, which allows the reader to follow the information from the beginning to the end. The article starts with an abstract, which gives a comprehensive summary of the main ideas in the article, an introduction, a research design, a case analysis of Syria and Libya, and a summative conclusion. This structure is effective in enhancing the source’s quality. More so, the source uses valuable information from numerous sources, with 114 footnotes supporting its ideologies. The source is relevant in the current analysis because it shows President Obama’s leadership approaches and their implication on his reign as the US president. The weakness in the source is that it focuses on two instances only, which means the analysis is anchored on the outcomes associated with only two instances. However, the instances had massive impacts, making them reliable in assessing the President.