James Traub seems to think that the U.S. never issues ultimatums to other governments:

But nowadays, powerful countries wish to be seen as rule-abiding, and are less inclined to shake their fist at weaker states. The ultimatum has become largely a tool of the weak — a form of asymmetric warfare.

I don’t think this generalization holds up very well at all. Last year, Obama delivered ultimatums to Gaddafi and Assad, he told the Egyptian government that a transition “must begin now” when Mubarak was still hanging on to power, and in September 2009 he said, “Iran’s leaders must now choose — they can live up to their responsibilities and achieve integration with the community of nations. Or they will face increased pressure and isolation, and deny opportunity to their own people.” Those are just the ones that I found in the last ten minutes. I imagine there are many other examples of this, and not just from the U.S. Obama has issued quite a few imperatives, and in most cases he has followed through with the punishments threatened in his many ultimatums. When the head of state of the world’s sole superpower dictates political and policy choices to other states on a regular basis, it is a bit premature to say that the ultimatum has largely become a tool of the weak. As ever, the difference between Karzai’s blustering and one of Obama’s demands is that the latter usually has the means to back up his threats.

Traub can’t mean what he says when he writes:

In these matters, Barack Obama is, of course, the consummate grown-up. He neither issues ultimatums nor takes the bait when others do so. He is elaborately respectful of the sovereignty of other states (except, perhaps, when he authorizes drone strikes).

As I just showed, Obama issues ultimatums quite frequently, and a quick review of Obama’s foreign policy record shows that he has very little respect for other states’ sovereignty. Many of his supporters regard this as a good thing. Some of his supporters like that he ignored Libyan sovereignty to intervene in its internal conflict, and others like that he routinely disregards Pakistani sovereignty to order strikes against Al Qaeda, but virtually no one thinks that Obama is “elaborately respectful” of other states’ sovereignty.