Ex-Obama ambassador questions foreign policy

President Obama’s former ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman (R), said Friday that the administration’s foreign policy is a “hedging strategy.”

“I think it’s a lot of hedging right now when a strategy ought to drive the discussion and drive policy,” Huntsman said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

{mosads}The former Utah governor called Obama’s foreign policy speech on Wednesday at the U.S. Military Academy “defensive.”

“You engage in a hedging strategy when you have nothing else to do,” he said. “So where’s the grand strategy behind the American role in the world?” 

Huntsman said in the speech, Obama seemed to compare his policy to former President George W. Bush’s, which Huntsman called “a little bit petty and unnecessary.” 

In his address, Obama emphasized a shift toward diplomacy over the use of military force, and he laid out foreign policy challenges currently facing the U.S.

“I thought much of it was music to the ears of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Chinese President] Xi Jinping,” Huntsman said, because “it was a little bit loose in terms of the use of force.” 

Huntsman served as Obama’s ambassador to China from 2009 until 2011, after which he ran for the GOP presidential nomination.