WASHINGTON - Barack Obama vowed to talk US foes back from the brink, but few have taken the bait, and even US friends have yet to bend to the will of the president's pro-engagement foreign policy.
"We have sought, in word and deed, a new era of engagement with the world," Obama told the United Nations in September.
And there is evidence, in foreign opinion polls, outpourings of goodwill when Obama travels abroad and in a just minted-Nobel peace prize that the president has transformed the global diplomatic climate.
But exactly a year after his historic election victory, Obama awaits a much-needed foreign policy win, as crises like the Iran nuclear showdown and Afghanistan's seemingly endless war deepen.
Following the trauma of the George W. Bush years, Obama eased Washington's confrontational diplomacy, soothed its friends and permitted one-one-one contacts with Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan and Myanmar.
He "reset" testy relations with Russia and sought new help from China in containing Pyongyang and Tehran.
Obama supporters argue that his foreign policy must be given time and that one man cannot change the world -- though his White House campaign appeared to suggest otherwise.
But Iran, perhaps the biggest test of the new era of engagement, is still suffering from US sanctions and Washington's policy of double standards, war threats and intimidation.
US engagement of Syria seems to have gone quiet and a promised US ambassador to Damascus has yet to arrive.
The president's wider foreign policy, also based on engagement, is still evolving.
Despite better ties with Russia, it is unclear if Moscow will back any tough new sanctions against Iran. A US-Russia deal on cutting nuclear stocks is however in the pipeline.
Though Obama threw his prestige into getting Israelis and Palestinians back to peace talks, he has met walls of indifference from Tel Aviv.
The idea, held by fervent supporters, that the popular appeal of a dynamic new US president could change political realities abroad is also in question.
European leaders might agree to sending more troops to Afghanistan -- but know the war is hugely unpopular among their electorates.
Obama's engagement doctrine was born at a presidential debate, when he was asked whether he would meet directly in his first year in office with leaders of US foes from North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba or North Korea.
"I would," he replied.
As he puts his policy into practice, Obama has been more cautious than his campaign suggested.
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