Big week for Obama on world stage. How did he do?

That resistance to American leadership was perhaps most vividly captured in the vitriolic UN speeches of leaders like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Libya's Muammar Qaddafi, and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.

Mr. Chávez garnered repeated applause from the UN General Assembly with a speech on the theme of what he called "the two Obamas" – one who speaks of global cooperation and the other who leads like a traditional imperialist.

"Which is the real Obama, the powerless in this world want to know," he said.

Obama realizes that today's world is not one where any single leader can command global action, says Andrew Bacevich, a professor of international relations at Boston University. "After 9/11, President Bush acted as if all he had to do was clap his hands and the world would follow his lead," he says. "Obama doesn't kid himself on that score."

If anything, Obama took some steps this week to demonstrate he understands that international leadership today means working with many different countries and levels of power, some analysts say. In particular in his speech to the UN General Assembly, Obama hit some good notes, says Kupchan of the Council on Foreign Relations. "He made it clear the US is a team player again, the country that wants to make the UN a more central institution for decisionmaking."

While Obama's setback on Middle East peace was the major public failure of the week, some analysts say the near-absence of Afghanistan from the agenda means the week really proceeded without taking up the major foreign-policy issue before his administration. "Afghanistan is likely to be the crucial determinant of Obama's approach to foreign policy, and it was nowhere to be seen," Professor Bacevich says.

His point: "If Obama chooses to accept … [the] call for a full-fledged counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan, it will mean that in effect Obama is affirming the main thrust of US foreign policy since 9/11 – the idea of the 'long war,' " he says. "And that will mean that all these other interests – from reining in nuclear weapons to tackling climate change – will come to be seen as throwaway tasks."

Indeed, Obama closed the week and the G20 summit answering a question on Afghanistan. He said he's asking "some very tough questions" before deciding how to proceed.

Despite Obama's foreign-policy gains this week, Kupchan says, the president now faces crucial months that will tell if "the positive gains of the week are translated into real cooperation and progress on halting Iran's nuclear program, on climate change, and on the world economy."

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G20 summit wrap-up

The meeting yielded some success for both Obama and nations, but world leaders couldn't agree on an exit strategy for the economic stimulus. Click here to read more.

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