President Barack Obama will head to New York this week for the third time in May to deliver the commencement address at West Point, where he is expected to defend his foreign policy approach.

On Wednesday, while the president stands before the graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, White House aides say his speech will address criticism against his handling of the crisis in Syria and Ukraine. 

"You will hear the president discuss how the United States will use all the tools in our arsenal without overreaching," said a top White House official on condition of anonymity, reported Yahoo News. "He will lay out why the right policy is one that is both interventionist and internationalist, but not isolationist or unilateral."

Despite killing Osama Bin Laden in 2011, Republicans accuse Obama of being weak and passive on foreign policy in light of the three-year civil war in Syria and Russia President Vladimir Putin's strike against Ukraine. However, the president is expected to defend his incremental approach to foreign policy, which he contends is reliant on multilateral diplomacy rather than military force.

Although he has authorized sanctions against some of Putin's inner circle and business associates, he has announced that he will not threaten military force over Moscow's seizure of Crimea. As a result, some fear that will signal China to take action against countries in the South China Sea.

Obama was also criticized last year when he opted not to use military force to stop the Syrian government from using chemical weapons against civilians. Critics say that, though Syria is currently disarming its chemical weapons stockpile, the Syrian civil war is ongoing while President Bashar al-Assad remains in power.

"We do see Syria as a counter-terrorism challenge. However, the right policy approach continues to be strengthening the moderate opposition, which offers an alternative to both the brutal Assad regime, and the more extremist elements within the opposition," said a top advisor on Saturday, according to Reuters.