U.S. President Barack Obama has a busy travel itinerary shaping up for the next quarter, an apparent effort to make up for what little attention he paid to several U.S. allies last year while dealing with more pressing distractions at home. As Obama turns his attention back to these allies, he will not only be sending a symbolic message of U.S. commitment to their countries, but he will also be quietly encouraging regional powers to shoulder more responsibility in their respective neighborhoods as Washington ties up loose ends in the Middle East. His balance-of-power strategy necessarily implies that even as Washington's interests align with those of its allies, differences in tactics could complicate many of these discussions.

The first trip on the list is a Feb. 19 summit in Toluca, Mexico, where Obama will be joined by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. This North American triad has plenty to discuss and plenty of reason to feel optimistic. With the United States on a steady path to economic recovery, Canada and Mexico will be able to rely on their neighbor to absorb their exports at a healthy rate. The U.S. shale boom, Canada's development of oil sands deposits and Mexico's political moves to reopen its energy sector to much-needed investment are contributing to a long-term vision of North American energy independence.

However, there are still several issues to work through for meaningful integration to develop. Canada needs to weigh the economic benefits of exporting crude to Asian markets, where it can turn a higher profit than in North America. The United States has its own political battles to contend with as it builds infrastructure links for Canadian crude. Mexico will need to take further steps to reassure foreign investors, particularly U.S. firms with the technical skills that Mexico lacks, that there will be a favorable investment climate for deep-water offshore and unconventional onshore production. Obama will seek to shift the focus from Mexico's drug war to the immense economic opportunities among the three countries, but Mexico City and Washington will continue to spar over how to manage the threat posed by organized crime groups.

Obama will then cross the Atlantic to meet with the chiefs of European bureaucracy in Brussels on March 26 before paying a visit to the pope in Italy. In a Feb. 1 speech in Munich, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for a "transatlantic renaissance," in which a strong Europe and a committed and engaged United States could tackle their common threats. Obama will continue to allay concerns over the NSA leaks as he carries this message of unshakable transatlantic cooperation, and he will buffer that message with calls to push forward negotiations for a U.S.-EU trade pact to rejuvenate Europe economically.

But Obama's talks with Europe's top bureaucrats belie the deepening disintegration in the Continent as individual countries struggle to cope with their economic crises. Northern European states with export-driven economies such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland may be more open to a free trade deal than countries like France that are far more leery of the negotiations as they struggle to remain competitive.

In any case, a so-called transatlantic renaissance also becomes difficult to fathom as Russia continues to assert itself along its former Soviet periphery, putting Central and Eastern Europeans in a supremely difficult spot. Poland and Lithuania are looking for support in their resistance against Russia in contested territories such as Ukraine, but they are finding only words from the United States and Germany, which is reluctant to push a crisis with Moscow at this time. Feeling the U.S. absence and deeper stresses building on the Continent, the German political elite are now publicly debating the need to assume a more assertive foreign policy, one in which Berlin can lead Europe through turmoil near and abroad. Washington will gladly support tighter integration between France and Germany to hold the European project together, but Washington, Paris, Warsaw and many others may have misgivings over what a more assertive German foreign policy would look like down the line.

Tacked on to Obama's Europe trip will be a stopover in Saudi Arabia, where he will rely on the usual defense contracts and energy deals to reaffirm the U.S. security commitment to the House of Saud. But the Saudi royals are understandably paranoid. The United States is clearly prioritizing negotiations with Iran in order to recreate a balance of power in the region that would enable Washington to play all sides of the Sunni/Shia and Persian/Arab divides. No longer will Gulf Cooperation Council states have the exclusive attention of Washington in the Persian Gulf. Riyadh is trying to prepare for this uncomfortable reality by building up a regional Gulf Cooperation Council military force under Saudi leadership, but common to all these countries is their inescapable dependence on an outside patron such as the United States for defense needs, even when it comes to training forces and operating advanced weapons systems.

Finally, Obama will turn his attention back to Asia in April, compensating for his last-minute trip cancellation last October when he had to deal with the government shutdown in Washington. The official details of his itinerary have yet to be released, but it is assumed that he will at least visit Japan, the Philippines and Malaysia, though South Korea is lobbying hard to get on the list. With plans to visit Beijing for a regional summit later in the year, Obama's foreign policy team will make the case that it is not snubbing China in this visit, but Beijing will certainly take note of which countries Obama prioritizes in what has so far been a half-hearted pivot to Asia.

The Philippines is looking for heavy U.S. military reinforcement as it bears the brunt of Chinese pressure in the South China Sea. Meanwhile, Malaysia will toe a more careful line as it tries to avoid Chinese discord in maritime disputes and balances domestic opposition over Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations.

In its much-heralded pivot to Asia, the United States cannot hide its struggle to match its rhetoric with meaningful action, so Washington will look principally to Japan to make up for its limited attention span and respond to mounting regional uncertainties. Japan is ready to assume that role, using the steady unshackling of its military and trade and aid deals to restore confidence in members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In return, Tokyo will expect greater U.S. understanding of recurring contentious issues, such as the Japanese prime minister's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, even as Washington tries with difficulty to keep relations cool with Beijing.

Obama's itinerary over the next three months is meant to signal to the world that the United States will tend to unfinished business with the help of local allies. But Washington has also been out of the game for a while in many of these areas, and so it cannot expect to be perfectly aligned with its regional partners on how to manage their neighborhoods. As Obama's visits will show, even a symbolic U.S. return will be met more with skepticism than with relief.