president-elect and his secretary of state-designate have said they want to abandon the silent treatment and isolation of previous administrations and try engaging Iran , as a way of resolving difficult issues such as its nuclear program and its influence in Iraq and Afghanistan . Watch Amanpour talk about world views of Obama '' The United States remains bogged down in hot wars in both of those countries . While the Obama administration plans to increase troops and nation-building in Afghanistan , it is also signaling it will not give President Hamid Karzai 's government the `` free ride '' he is thought to have received from the Bush administration . Karzai will be expected to root out corruption and better address the needs of the Afghan people . The new administration will also try to revive nuclear arms agreements that have been abandoned over the last eight years and try to forge a more constructive relationship with Russia , while persuading that country to meet its international obligations too . While many allies -- and adversaries -- welcome the new U.S. administration 's declaration to use diplomacy and soft power , the question remains : Will Washington 's allies
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- When Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States , the wish list that has been building abroad may have grown longer than he or anyone else can deliver . The world 's newspapers marked Barack Obama 's election win . Now , world governments want him to act . There are the apparently eternal conflicts of the Middle East and Kashmir , between India and Pakistan , that have already reared their ugly heads almost as a warning even before Obama took office . Between them , they engulf most of the grievances and violence that shape the Islamic world and its relations with the United States . Intense U.S. involvement will be needed to help resolve both of the conflicts . This will require imagination , creative out-of-the-box diplomacy , and the courage to see it through both from the United States and leaders on the ground . Going back even to the status-quo ante will no longer be sufficient . The 30-year-old rupture in relations between the United States and Iran is also expected to be addressed as a key priority by the new administration . Both the