President Obama's foreign policy has been much in the spotlight recently as outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and soon-to-be Secretary of State John Kerry and former Nebraska testified before Congress last week, and with former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Ne) due to appear before lawmakers Wednesday.
But what are the principles behind President Obama's foreign policy? Is there such thing as an Obama Doctrine?
The president's "foreign-policy goal in his second term: to avoid costly entanglements," said a recent Economist article entitled "The Obama Doctrine," which argued that the president's priority was to avoid letting foreign matters distract from his domestic priorities like gun control, immigration reform and the budget.
"It's not as clear as the Monroe Doctrine, it's also not as clear as the Neocon Doctrine in which we go in and blunderbuss our way towards democracy,” Mother Jones' David Corn said on NOW with Alex Wagner on Tuesday.