The Obama volcano effect?

With President Obama forced cut his trip to Ireland short because of fears that the eruption of Icleand’s Grimsvotn will disrupt airline travel, ABC’s Jake Tapper notes that the President has particularly bad timing with volcanic eruptions: Last November, President Obama had to cut short his visit to a different nation where he was having ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
STR/AFP/Getty Images
STR/AFP/Getty Images
STR/AFP/Getty Images

With President Obama forced cut his trip to Ireland short because of fears that the eruption of Icleand's Grimsvotn will disrupt airline travel, ABC's Jake Tapper notes that the President has particularly bad timing with volcanic eruptions:

With President Obama forced cut his trip to Ireland short because of fears that the eruption of Icleand’s Grimsvotn will disrupt airline travel, ABC’s Jake Tapper notes that the President has particularly bad timing with volcanic eruptions:

Last November, President Obama had to cut short his visit to a different nation where he was having something of a homecoming: Indonesia, where he spent four years as a child.

In April 2010, President Obama had to cancel a visit to Poland for the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, killed in a plane crash with his wife and dozens of other Polish leaders.

Those latter two incidents were the fault of Eyjafjallajokull. That pesky volcano also caused General Stanley McChrystal and his aides to spend more time with a Rolling Stone reporter than they had originally planned, with a whole other set of repercussions.

Can it be a coincidence that the travel schedule of America’s first Hawaiian president seems to have a strange effect on global geological activity? I think not.

Here are six other places that may want to reconsider inviting Obama to town. (If the president decides to take a tour of the Yellowstone Caldera, I’m building a bomb shelter.)

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

More from Foreign Policy

Residents evacuated from Shebekino and other Russian towns near the border with Ukraine are seen in a temporary shelter in Belgorod, Russia, on June 2.
Residents evacuated from Shebekino and other Russian towns near the border with Ukraine are seen in a temporary shelter in Belgorod, Russia, on June 2.

Russians Are Unraveling Before Our Eyes

A wave of fresh humiliations has the Kremlin struggling to control the narrative.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shake hands in Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shake hands in Beijing.

A BRICS Currency Could Shake the Dollar’s Dominance

De-dollarization’s moment might finally be here.

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in an episode of The Diplomat
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in an episode of The Diplomat

Is Netflix’s ‘The Diplomat’ Factual or Farcical?

A former U.S. ambassador, an Iran expert, a Libya expert, and a former U.K. Conservative Party advisor weigh in.

An illustration shows the faces of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted by wavy lines of a fragmented map of Europe and Asia.
An illustration shows the faces of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted by wavy lines of a fragmented map of Europe and Asia.

The Battle for Eurasia

China, Russia, and their autocratic friends are leading another epic clash over the world’s largest landmass.