The Next Decade by George Friedman is a strong, opinionated view of America’s history and potential future path. Friedman deeply analyzes the historical events and phenomenon that have brought the United States to the position it holds in the world today. He also speaks of where America is headed over the next ten years and gives suggestions and predictions about where the world is headed and what actions should/will be taken. Friedman coves a wide variety of topics, most notably the American empire, terrorism and the Middle East, and the role of the rest of the world (Russia, Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa). Though his historical context is well researched, some of his recommendations for the future are often poorly thought through and fail to take into account ethics and implications of America’s actions. …show more content…
The main flaw with this point of view is the assumption that, because America has a strong grip on world economy and politics, it is ethical for her to take control of world affairs. The reality of the matter is, America’s massive wealth and military force does not necessarily mean that the government of the United States is wiser than the rest of the world. Rather than abusing her power, America should focus on being a team player and promoting democracy at home and abroad through allying themselves with countries holding similar values. In today’s world it is nearly impossible for an action that America takes to not have drastic consequences in many different
evolution HIST 405 Week 5 DQ 2 Imperialism and America HIST 405 Week 6 DQ 1 The Great Depression HIST 405 Week 6 DQ 2 World War II HIST 405 Week 6 Webliography 2 HIST 405 Week 7 Assignment America and the Great War HIST 405 Week 7 DQ 1 The Cold War and America HIST 405 Week 7 DQ 2 Terrorism in the 21st Century HIST 405 Entire Course Purchase here https://sellfy.com/p/LgnV/ Product Description HIST 405
Although the United States has been regarded as having dominant world power amongst other nations, the truth lies far from its holdings. During the George W. Bush administration (2001-09), the United States went through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, declared war on Afghanistan and Iraq causing poor standing with other nations, and was left with a $1.2 trillion-dollar deficit. With the election of a new President, President Obama, came new opportunities. During his campaign, President Obama focused on the needs of the American people rather than the needs of those of special interest. The former State Senator, Barack Obama, and Vice
As stronger nations exercise their control over weaker ones, the United States try to prove their authority, power and control over weaker nations seeing them as unable to handle their own issues thereby, imposing their ideology on them. And if any of these weaker nations try to resist, then the wrath of the United States will come upon them. In overthrow the author Stephen Kinzer tells how Americans used different means to overthrow foreign government. He explains that the campaign & ideology of anti- communism made Americans believe that it was their right and historical obligation to lead forces of good against those of iniquity. They also overthrew foreign government, when economic interest coincided with their ideological ones
America has foreign policies, rules that allow the country to involve itself with other ones. It sets standards of involvement for its organizations, corporations, and citizens. The main goal is to create and remain a secure prosperous world for the advantage of the American people. President Woodrow Wilson proposed Moral Diplomacy in his election during 1912.
Since the end of the Second World War the United States has arguably been considered the greatest country in the world. The supposed leader of the free world, strongest and most powerful country in the world. The definition that the United States is the ‘greatest country’ in the world is open to discussion and can be compared at many different levels, however, for the purpose of this essay, the term ‘greatness’ is measured by its economic prowess and its hard power. The term ‘hard power’ is defined as ‘a coercive approach to international political relation, especially one that involves the use of military power’. After eight years of Obama doctrine, is it time to make America great again” must be broken down into two parts. What is Obama Doctrine, does it exist and then compare his Doctrine also tackle the quote of ‘making America great again’. This essay will argue that Obama Doctrine does exist and is linked to his foreign and domestic policies. It will also argue that America is still great but for different reasons. It will provide evidence that with the Obama doctrine it has moved from the historic use of hard power to a soft power footing. ‘Soft power” is defined as ‘a persuasive approach to international relations, typically involving the use of economical or cultural influence’. However, even with this switch in posture, the United States has remained great. Albeit for
The Next Decade, a novel by George Friedman, talks about the predictions of countries in the upcoming decade and how the United States should react to the various challenges. The novel’s first major claim is that the United States is actually an empire, similar to how Rome and Great Brian were. However, unlike the previous empires, the United States refuses to acknowledge its status as an empire. “What makes the United States an empire is the number of countries it affects, the intensity of the impact, and the number of people in those countries affected.” The implication of this quote is that the US has gotten to be so large, if the US decided to draw out of global affairs, the impact would be detrimental. Instead of escaping its duty to the world, Friedman claims that the United States must acknowledge its status as an empire and function as such in order to maneuver the next decade. This claim is a wise claim made by Friedman, but it his only claim of worth in the novel. In The Next Decade, Friedman fails to make his thesis credible because he doesn’t his sources, provide logical arguments on his predications of the future, or examine alternative possibilities.
There are striking parallels between the eras of the Cold War and the War on Terror and America’s International Relations. After World War II, the Truman Doctrine became America’s ideology for combating communism throughout the globe. Similarly, after the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001, America’s philosophy was then succeeded by the Bush Doctrine to battle the new threat, the war on terror. In addition, both the long climatic wars of each era (Vietnam War and War in Iraq) shared comparable lead-ups, beginnings, and endings in their conflicts in each region, their politics and shared resentment by the American public. The final parallel is the common suspicions
For more than 50 years, the cold war grabbed the attention of many of the world’s nations. This happened due to the evident rising powers of the United States and the Soviet Union. Both of them wanted an upper hand on the power influence and hence half the century was spent under conflict and unsettled disputes. Later the Soviet Union broke down and divided into separate republics, giving freedom to the West. But this liberation led to uncertainties for the West’s future leadership. Many issues arose questioning whether the change will decrease the danger or will the West be able to maintain the position in world’s affairs during the millennium? Will the twenty-first century be more peaceful and have productive outcomes than the twentieth
The U.S. has a history of being bad at entangling alliances. According to George Washington, “We need to be careful of tangling alliances” (Fromkin). For this reason, the United States was dragged into WWI. America should be constantly increasing its military, but for national defense, not for policing the world (Schneider). America's national security depends on America to stop getting involved in everything and to secure its borders. If America could stop spending millions on policing other countries; the weight of this task would be shifted to a group of nations that have their governments under control.
In this course we have discussed several topics involving the American government. In this paper I will discuss the American domestic policy and give some details about the goals of the domestic policy. I will explain how domestic policy affects relationships between the United States and the other nations. In addition, I will discuss how domestic policy affects the United States strategy on internationalism and how the media influences such decision. Finally, I will discuss why the shared power of the three branches of the government is sometimes referred to as an invitation to struggle about policy making for foreign affairs.
The end of the cold war obligated the United States once again to face the old problems which weren’t based on containment of communism. Like in the aftermath of World War 2 when America’s influence in the world was expanded, the end of the Cold War did much of the same. The problem’s the Soviet Union once had of controlling and influencing smaller countries under its thumb, now were inherited by the last super power standing, which at the time was the United States. Debate began to rise on what path America should take next on foreign policy, should the U.S commit itself to small problems or hold back its fire until a greater threat emerged?
As we approach the next Presidential election the topic of American foreign policy is once again in the spotlight. In this paper, I will examine four major objectives of U.S. foreign policy that have persisted throughout the twentieth century and will discuss the effect of each on our nation’s recent history, with particular focus on key leaders who espoused each objective at various times. In addition, I will relate the effects of American foreign policy objectives, with special attention to their impact on the American middle class. Most importantly, this paper will discuss America’s involvement in WWI, WWII, and the Cold War to the anticipated fulfillment of these objectives—democracy,
The Bush Doctrine vastly expanded what the United States deems a “vital interest”—dragging preëmptive action, unilateralism, and anti-terrorism under its umbrella. Democratizing nations plays a critical role in the strategy as well. A spirit of liberalism flows through the Doctrine, as it attempts to depose tyrannical dictators to ease relations between nations and foster democracy. It
Samuel Huntington’s controversial article “The Clash of Civilizations?” was first published in Foreign Affairs in 1993 and was subsequently turned into a book in 1996 titled The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. As this paper will show Huntington’s work can be seen as a product of the post-Cold War context it was written in. Huntington’s article takes a new perspective on the new world order and outlines a different way a thinking about how future world conflicts will unfold. Since the initial journal article was published in 1993 there has been a great deal of response from academics and also from Huntington himself. A majority of the responses come in the form of critiques, with the authors offering their own insight into how the post-Cold War World will operate. Although the validity of Huntington’s arguments have been questioned, it did create a great deal of controversy in the academic world. As Huntington explained in the preface of his 1996 book, the original article published in Foreign Affairs created more discussion in three years than any other article published in the journal since the 1940s.
“America was conducting business as usual, but others were joining the game.” (Zakaria, 221). All this time we thought we were on top, we were actually slowly becoming less and less of leader and more a bystander as the rest of the world is slowly rising around us. Zakaria shows in that quote that as America has been continuing business like always, and because of this we have failed to realize our standing with the world around us. In the book The Post-American World, Zakaria shows us the challenges that America faces today. I believe the United States is most affected by our ignorance, competition, and worldly participation.