With a civilian nuclear deal hanging in the balance, a depressing forecast for the global economy and the spectre of Islamic extremism continuing to haunt the subcontinent, the US presidential elections are of special interest in India. From the Indian perspective, Barack Obama, who, regardless of the results of Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary, remains favoured to win the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, cuts an enigmatic figure.

Obama voted for the Hyde Act in 2006, but famously introduced an amendment that threatened fuel supply assurances to India. He also voted in favour of so-called ‘killer amendments’ which would have made the deal impossible from India’s vantage point. Obama has spoken out against outsourcing and in favour of more rigorous international measures to combat climate change, but has also taken a less lenient position on military aid to Pakistan. He has frequently positioned himself to the left of rival Hillary Clinton, but has often spoken of reaching across the political aisle to work with Republicans.

Given his increasingly bitter competition with Clinton for the nomination, it is surprising that Obama’s foreign policy advisory team is led by several former officials from her husband’s administration — his National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, the former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Susan Rice, ex-Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig, and Greg Craig, who was Director of Policy Planning in the State Department and who defended Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial in 1999 — as well as former Senate staffer Denis McDonough. Starting in 2006, these core advisers began to bring together teams of experts on international affairs to advise the campaign on specific issues. Now numbering well over a hundred, these experts have varying degrees of involvement in the campaign.

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