The United States And Foreign Policy

Prior to World War I, the United States generally chose to follow Washington’s farewell address and stay out of “foreign entanglements”. The United States foreign policy from 1918 to 1953 shifted from isolationism or independent internationalism to a more involved internationalism and containment of communism due to various international events, economic conditions, and US public opinion.

Throughout the course of history, the United States has remained consistent with its national interest by taking many different actions in foreign policy. There have been both immediate and long term results of these actions. Foreign policy is the United States policy that defines how we deal with other countries economically and politically. It is made by congress, the president, and the people. Some of the motivations for United States foreign policy are national security, economics, and idealism. The United States entry into World War I in 1917 and the escalation of the Vietnam War in 1964 and the both had great impact on the United States.

Throughout the mid to late twentieth century the United States was extremely concerned with their foreign policy due to mishaps that surfaced as a result of lazy administration when dealing with communism. As an example, one mishap was how the Truman Administration dealt with China after the KMT surfaced following WWII. Instead of immediately defending the People’s Republic of China, the United States stayed mostly secluded and independent and let China slip into the favor of the KMT. This was an example of the United States’ being too moderate in their foreign policy. However, on the other hand, there were examples where the United States was too aggressive in their foreign policy. An example of this was how the US chose to dealt with North

Foreign policy is how one nation deals with many other nations. The book talks about Ronald Regan trying to create foreign policy and then here you have congress like a bunch of ants floating on a log down river each ant thinking there in charge. Foreign policy from the way “How Congress Works’” says is set up by the president and not really. Having congress get involved makes foreign policy way more complicated then needed. Harry Truman was one man who was asked a question. A random person wanted to know who created foreign policy? His answer was that he did. Now this leads to a important example of foreign policy. This leads to John F. Kennedy and we all know what major foreign policy deal he had to deal with. It was the Cuban missile crisis.

The U.S. foreign policy has always been linked to the domestic policy since the U.S. never feared of expanding its national interests over the national boarders. Isolation for the U.S. usually implied slow economic growth and the large number of destructive conflicts within, while impudent foreign policy always guaranteed an abrupt economic growth for the U.S. economy. After the U.S. intervened in the WWI and the WWII, the U.S. economy witnessed a tremendous economic growth, nearly elimination of the unemployment, rapid urbanization and overall growth of the standards of living across the country. Decisive foreign policy has always been providing the U.S. economy with the sustainable and rapid economic growth, unlike the policy aimed at isolation of the U.S.

The revolts that were going on during this time made America not trust Spain and made America believe that Spain cannot control their affairs. Cuba had many revolts for example, “both sides in Cuba preferred war to reform, and the rebels declared for full independence” (342). On February 15th, 1898 an American ship named the Maine was visiting Havana, THE MAINE then exploded in the harbor and had 266 casualties. With no evidence Spain was the first to blame for this travesty Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed, “The Maine

In this lesson, I have learned about how the United States dealt with foreign policies in the past, much different than today's world. First let's talk about the French Revolution, it lasted ten years and occurred during Washington's presidency. France overthrew their king and tried to have a government much like the U.S. The French people sent Citizen Genet over to the United States to get their support. Washington, however was having no parts of it. Washington remained neutral, probably the best choice anyone could make, he refused to pick sides. Citizen Genet did not get his way, he began talking smack on the United States, disrespecting their laws. People feared Genet could compromise their national security. The Constitution advocates

American foreign policy relates to what is done in foreign countries by the United States of America. The foreign policies include controlling of the governments of foreign countries or setting some rules in those countries. The foreign policy of America has always been changing all through the US existence. The changes have stemmed from the dynamics of exogenous and substantial influences of watershed up to the international system and also the effects and changes of endogenous inside the government of the United States. Outstanding assertions like the policies of Monroe, intercontinental encounters such as the Second World War, War of the Spanish and Americans, and the cold war and also conflicts that were termed as local including the Korean War and the Vietnam War considerably shaped the American foreign policy (Kissinger et al., 1969).

As was laid out in the previous section, the United-States always had a ‘hegemonic presumption’, the conception that Latin America was inferior, a supposition that gave the right to Washington to intervene in the region’s political and economic affairs (LeoGrande, 2007:384). This second chapter will explore how the U.S. intervened in Latin America, more specifically after the World War II. Indeed, the U.S. benefitted greatly from the aftermath of the war. A subsection will be dedicated to the Pink Tide in Latin America, with a focus on the U.S. foreign policy under President GW Bush and President Obama. The overthrown Presidents of Honduras and Paraguay were part of this movement and their outset signals a reversal in the region.

Over the course of the history of the United States, specific foreign policies have affected the methods in which the U.S. involves itself around the globe. Specifically, certain policies have affected U.S. involvement in Latin America.

From Independence through WWI, the US tried to refuse to become generally and permanently involved in the affairs of the rest of the world. It started in the early years of this nation when George Washington declared that “our true policy” was “to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”. After, in 1801, Thomas Jefferson warned the nation against “entangling alliances”. So it was basically in the genetics in this country to isolate itself. Yet this policy did not demand a complete separation from the rest of the world. The US developed ties abroad by exchanging Ambassadors, signing treaties with many nations, et cetera.

Third and finally, Bremmer’s preferable approach, the Independent America approach, focuses on America’s errors with an imperialistic style of foreign policy. Bremmer states that the United States should let those boiling points in Europe and the Middle East be handled by their own countries. This idea focuses on the betterment of the United States economy and social problems. Pointing to the recent events in Ukraine the Independent approach makes the point of the fact that the American people do not want to continue the involvement in the Baltic States and would much rather focus on issues within the homeland. However, the United States government has already put in too many lives and economic expenditures to just pull out, at this point it would simply be a waste. While the involvement in the first place was the wrong choice it cannot be helped at this point. Bremmer’s action of pointing to the Vietnam War stands to be an unfair representation of current foreign policy as the war itself was more than forty years ago. As it stands now the United States foreign policy is a well-built system, sure there are some things that require changing but there is always going to be a flaw in it as with time the world changes. Bremmer states that the United States should not force its ideals onto countries that do not want change, saying that trying to force them will cause dispute that they are more willing to win. While this is true it is for a good cause, democracy is needed within

In their book American Foreign Policy since World War 2, Steven W. Hook, and John Spanier take a historical look at American foreign policy. Since its independence, all through to the start of the 20th century, the United States had a policy of detachment. This was rooted in the believe that Europe, the only other meaningful powerful in the world in the 18th and 19th century, had intrinsic issues related to feudism that kept the continent in a constant state of war (Hook & Spanier, 2015). The U.S on its part was far away from Europe and had a unique chance to chart a different course, one free from the troubles of Europe. As a democracy free from the class systems of Europe and hence maintain peace and stability (Hook & Spanier, 2015). To maintain this peace and stability, it was in the United States interests to maintain detachment from Europe. In fact, Monroe wrote that Europe and its flawed system was evil and America should strive as much as possible to stay away from it (Hook & Spanier, 2015). However, in the 20th century, this policy of detachment was put to the test when the United States was drawn into the first and second world wars by external factors. This led the United States to get more engaged in global affairs. The idea behind engagement was to promote the ideals of democracy which, the U.S believed were the pillars of peace, as well as to protect itself from aggressors like Japan in the Second World War. After the

American Foreign Policy refers to the interests of the United States among the world of Nations. American Foreign Policy also refers to the United States effort to achieve its national objectives, sometimes at the expense of other nations.

The USA exercises its foreign policy through financial aid. For example, scarcity relief in North Korea provides not only humanitarian aid but also a base for the development of democratic ideals and bodies.