In a foreign policy speech on October 2, 2007 then-candidate Barack Obama talked about starting a "new era of openness." As one example, he promised to deliver an annual "State of the World" address in which he would outline the United States' foreign policy.
It's been more than six years since Obama made that promise, almost five years since he took office, and nearly four years since we last looked at this promise (and rated it a Promise Broken). So we decided it was time to take a look again.
Obama regularly addresses foreign affairs issues in speeches, statements, press releases and interviews – the VoteSmart database, an archive for public statements, lists almost 800 such examples since Obama became president in 2009.
Obama addresses foreign policy or national security in many speeches when he travels abroad, most recently in St. Petersburg, Russia, or in Berlin. He also delivers some back home, such as his address to the nation on Syria from the White House or his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, both in September, 2013.
But none of those speeches was ever called or defined as a "State of the World" address. Our extensive searches of the White House Web site, an archive of Obama's speeches on VoteSmart.org and Google found no speeches by the name.
The website for a local CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., dubbed Obama's final U.N. speech before the 2012 election his "final 'State of the World' address," but the article doesn't explain this choice of words, and as far as we can tell, they just meant it as a catchy headline.
When we reached out to the White House, the press office confirmed that Obama "has not delivered regular 'State of the World speeches' as envisioned in 2007." Besides his numerous other speeches on foreign policy, they pointed out that Obama discusses his "key national security priorities" in his annual State of the Union address.
After five years as president, Obama still hasn't delivered a single one of his annual "State of the World" addresses. And there is no sign that he ever will. This one stays at Promise Broken.