Here in Chicago in the home base of US President Barack Obama, there is much discussion about his future prospects in two years’ time, and how his Democratic Party will fare in the mid-term congressional elections in November. At several conferences and lectures I have attended in the United States in the past two weeks, the question often comes up about how Obama has fared to date with his policies in the Middle East. The consensus among scholars and experts seems to be that it is not easy to make a decisive assessment right now.
