President-elect Barack Obama will come to office facing a long list of challenges at home and abroad. Economic troubles in America, dominated by rising unemployment, a painful recession and what Obama termed "the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression", are bound to take up a lot of time on the new president’s agenda.
As it deals with these economic challenges, the new administration will need to remain engaged on multiple fronts around the world – and it is the broader Middle East that presents perhaps the most complicated national security challenges for the incoming Obama administration.
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