Handing over power from one US president to the next and one party to the other is a complicated process, especially when the country is at war and facing a financial crisis.
George W Bush’s answer to the transfer to Barack Obama, who won power in 2008, was a months-long working relationship that included 40 classified memos covering all aspects of foreign policy and which can now be read for the first time.
Perhaps because Bush’s policy was best known for its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, his senior staff went to great pains to explain to their successors how they tried to advance democracy around the world with their “freedom agenda”, including resolving half a dozen conflicts in Africa and tackling HIV and malaria.
