Abstract: With this essay, Professor Goldsmith provides a tour of the horizon of the Obama administration's international law record in order to identify the distinctiveness of its approach and to tie it in to some general themes in international and foreign relations law. He describes what is interesting and distinctive about the Obama administration's approach to international law by considering its practices through the lens of the two mechanisms through which a president and his team can influence international law: the interpretation of international law commitments, and the use of tools of diplomacy to contribute to the making of new international agreements.