Over the past 100 days, President Barack Obama has recast policy toward Russia, reached out his hand to Iran, dispatched a Middle East peace envoy, announced new strategies towards Iraq and Afghanistan and embarked on charm tours of Europe and Latin America that also struck a note of humility.

Sometimes his administration’s engagement with unconventional interlocutors has taken place in the glare of cameras, as when he grinned and gripped the hand of Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez. Sometimes it has been behind the scenes, as when the State department’s top diplomat on the Americas held two quiet meetings this month with the head of Cuba’s interest section in Washington.