The United States And NATO

Thesis: Although NATO provided assistance in containing the spread of communism, and its member countries applied economic pressure on the Soviet Union, neither NATO nor President Reagan should be solely credited with causing the fall of the Soviet Union and thus the end of the Cold War. Instead, it was a combination of the tough Reagan administration policies and NATO’s threatening military armory along with grave economic problems within the Soviet Union that ultimately brought the end to the Cold War.

What purpose does NATO serve to Canada? The basic argument of this paper is that Canada should remain in NATO. Canada as a ‘middle power’ needs to continue perceiving NATO as a strategic tool to restrain and link all powerful states together and counterbalance U.S dominance. More importantly, if Trudeau’s government really wants to go back to its internationalism approach and demonstrate how different they are from Harper’s administration, Canada needs to remain in NATO in order to reassure its commitment to multilateralism and collective security. Canada’s interest of always having a seat at the table among powerful states and therefore the chance to be

After unraveling of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, fears of war breaking out between the major powers of the United States and the Soviet Union were greatly reduced. Numerous commentaries, reports, and studies arose out of the question of what to do with the excess U.S. forces, and how to reshape them for a new era (Snider & Carlton-Carew, 1996). Since the birth of the United States, the military has been an important part of the United States. The US military has been a fundamental part of foreign policy, including fostering democracy, establishing rule of law, and assisting with economic development in territories allied with the U.S. (Ludema, 2007).

At this point in time, the main actors in the international system are nation-states seeking an agenda of their own based on personal gain and national interest. Significantly, the most important actor is the United States, a liberal international economy, appointed its power after the interwar period becoming the dominant economy and in turn attained the position of hegemonic stability in the international system. The reason why the United States is dominating is imbedded in their intrinsic desire to continuously strive for their own national interest both political and economic. Further, there are other nature of actors that are not just nation-states, including non-states or transnational,

National interests are usually the main consideration for the U.S. foreign policy, which can divide into two different parts. First, to protect and prevent American people from any kind of attack, which is the most important and commonly agreed unanimously. Second, helping and maintaining the operation of the U.S. government. To ensure that the interests of national development are not being compromised, Untied States have more aggressively policy to protect its national interests. Some people believe the “the U.S. will use unrivaled military power to further the global counterterrorism movement and democracy as the core goal of foreign policy. Furthermore, the U.S. hopes that all countries and societies can choose the most advantageous political and economic system to themselves independently, to help those countries which have been used as safe haven by terrorism organizations to get rid of the chaos caused by war and poverty.”

The President’s recent actions to send troops to Poland and Lithuania to defend our NATO allies has led to questions regarding the constitutionality of such action and the role congress plays in crafting American foreign policy. It is very important to understand these questions and the debates that surround them are not new to our nation. In fact, two of our nations most important founders, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, debated the balance of congressional and presidential power in foreign affairs all the way back in 1793. Similarly, the need to defend our NATO allies is nothing new. As Russia looks to expand its “sphere of influence” and return to its Cold War Self; we must ensure that our military and our NATO allies have the

The United States is commonly viewed as a leader country. Most countries look up to the US for advice or ideas to take care of their government and country. The US is on the fence about whether they want to participate on the debate and/or creation on the UN’s standing army. Over the years, the US has accumulated several billion dollars in debt. Their economic standpoint right takes priority over most things. The United States involvement is

The United States and the Soviet Union had fought together as allies against Nazi Germany during World War II. When the war had ended, the Soviet Union had maintained a large presence in much of Eastern and Central Europe. Communist governments, allied with the Soviet Union, were soon established within this region. Winston Churchill, who had served as British Prime Minister during World War II, had warned that an “iron curtain” divided Western and Eastern Europe. He was fearful communism would spread through war-torn Europe. The United States and the Soviet Union were now engaged in a new period of conflict, later known as the Cold War. The United States had provided assistance to Europe in an effort to contain Soviet

In 1949 NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, formed an alliance with the countries in Western Europe and the United States in hopes to separate themselves from the countries of the east. The Eastern countries formed the Warsaw Pact; this was an inferior treaty considering the countries did not have the right to choose whether or not they

The U.S wanted to adopted to its new international relations as it assumed the role of the defender of freedom and liberty. To secure freedom, NATO was created as a means to unify and strengthen the Western Allies' military response to a possible invasion by the Soviet Union and its allies. This, and the additional expansion of the U.S’s defense expenditures created by NSC-68, promoted a system in which the America and other countries could survive and flourish because it affirmed “the necessity of our positive participation in the world community...a healthy international community” (Hoffman 287). NSC-68 allowed the U.S. to “block soviet expansion, expose the falsities of Soviet pretensions, and induce...control and influence” (Hoffman 288). The concept of containment was needed to maintain a strong military posture and promote national security.

One of the biggest foreign policy and organizations created was NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). NATO was set in place to combat and contain the communist threat. The goal behind NATO was a collective defensive measure that consisted of 28 members in 1949. In essence the group promised to work together and put their military forces together if the enemy decided to attack. The power of NATOs strategies where not seen until the Korean War. Also, in retaliation to NATO , the communist formed the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact was in essence the same as NATO but instead consisted of communist powers such as the USSR. NATO brought the part of the world together under one name as well as opened the door to other foreign policies and ways of management such as containment.

Commitment to international security has been a point of conflict between Russia and the U.S. Historically the U.S. has abided by an ideology of universalism, “by which all nations share a common interest in all the affairs of the world” whereas Russia, formerly the USSR, has abided by the sphere-of-influence view, “by which each great power would be assured by other great powers of predominance in its own area of special interest” (Origins, p.26). Therefore, it is imperative that U.S. leadership protects the sovereignty of

UN and NATO were both formed after major crises in the world. UN was being formed during and after WWII. In

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was the unquestioned hegemon of the western world acting in a unipolar world. However, recently the United States has fallen into a series of deprival causing its reputation to fall as a state. Despite this, under the Bush Doctrine, the United States currently has a preemptive hegemonic imperative policy. Under this policy, the United States takes into account that the world is a perilous environment in need of a leader to guide and to control the various rebel states unipolarly. Under this policy though, the United States acts alone with no assistance from other states or institutions. Global intuitions that would assist under other types of policies are flagrantly disregarded in this policy in spite of its emphasis on the international level. As well as not participating in international institutions, this policy states that the United States should act entirely in its own wisdom. The UN (the United Nations), GATT (General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade), along with other institutions advice is not heeded within this self-made policy. Though the United States currently acknowledges these global organizations, it no longer takes them into account with severity. Instead of acting under the international system, the United States currently acts through its military, and large economy to instill fear within the various actors in the intercontinental system. According to this philosophy the

Thus, in this context of a unipolar system dominated by U.S., it is highly unlikely that a great power like U.S., motivated by its relentless pursuit of power and security, would allow itself to be deterred by U.N. resolutions that do not comply with its own interests. This also reflects the realist interpretation of international system which is characterized by anarchy and therefore, it is not considered prudent for a State to entrust its safety and survival on another actor or international institutions such as United Nations.