Despite the fact that Barack Obama considered himself a peacemaker, “hard power” was used by him in foreign policy, especially clearly manifested in the desire to change the regimes that Washington did not like in the undemocratic countries of the East. The article analyzes the attitude of the White House to the use of force in foreign policy during the Obama administration. The U. S. participation in the Libyan crisis, the U. S. campaign against the terrorism- threat posed by the Islamic state, the United States intervention in the Syrian crisis operation are considered as an example of the use of “hard power”. The author shows how Obama's foreign policy changed during his presidential terms, and comes to the conclusion that during the first presidential term Barack Obama maintained a policy of isolationism, during the second period maintained a policy of global engagement. In the end, the author predicts the possibility of further use of “hard” power in U. S. foreign policy.