Washington, Jan 9 : Experts have said that US President-elect Barack Obama is likely to follow President George W. Bush's foreign policy.

According to a report in Politico, the assumption is based on the backgrounds of the people Obama has chosen to shape his foreign policy, who will chart a course fairly similar to the one Bush followed during his last couple of years in office.

Under the leadership of Bush, the US has intervened more often in more countries farther from its own shores than has any power in modern history.

Bush did so more brazenly and more recklessly than many of his predecessors, but he adhered to the American tradition more than he broke with it, the report said.

Bush had announced his breathtaking goal of quickly transforming the Middle East and its surrounding regions into a vast zone of prosperity, peace and political freedom.

His desire to embrace this Utopian project was based on two central beliefs: that the world will be stable only if all countries adopt American-style political and economic systems, and that the U. S. can make them do so by applying military power.

But, the dramatic weakening of American security over the past eight years has led many Americans to question these beliefs.

That may make it easier for Obama to avoid the temptation of military intervention abroad.

Nonetheless, the new administration is unlikely to challenge the assumptions that have traditionally guided U. S. foreign policy.

If the same policies are followed after Obama takes over from Bush, the new administration is likely to reduce troop strength in Iraq more slowly than Obama said he would during the campaign.

Under this scenario, after the end of 2011, when all U. S. troops are supposed to be out of Iraq, there will probably still be tens of thousands there.

As far as Afghanistan is concerned, it is a country where aggressive American military tactics have alienated much of the population.

There, the US will proceed with plans for a major escalation, which will drive even more Afghans into the arms of the Taliban. (ANI)