American Foreign Policy Essay

American Foreign Policy in the 1890s American foreign policy during the 1890s was based on many factors that each acted as an individual justification for our country’s behavior as a whole. Racism, nationalism, commercialism, and humanitarianism each had its own role in the actions America took against other nations. Most Americans were extremely racist during this time period. The predominant culture in the country was white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants, aka WASPs. They scorned the now free black

As the Cold War continued, American foreign policy morphed. In 1953, upon the election of President Dwight David Eisenhower, Republicans held the majority in both the House and Senate (Hagen, Ruttan 1988, 4). President Eisenhower aspired to cut military spending and abandon containment. From the battlefield to the White House, Eisenhower relied on his military experience and knowledge to hone foreign policy strategies. Though Eisenhower’s policies had endured during his presidency, Kennedy’s presidency

second inaugural address in 1937, no American could have predicted how crucial they would soon become. It was not until ten years later that it became more necessary than ever to “provide…for those who have too little” in the form of foreign aid. At the end of World War II, Europe was in economic shambles. Western European nations’ basic food and industrial supplies were dwindling so rapidly that a post-war Paris conference determined “…the total European foreign exchange deficit for the four-year

Post-World War II National Security Structure Development Steven Hook and John Spanier's 2012 book titled “American foreign policy since WWII" serves as one of the most important texts that can be used in understanding the underlying complexities on American foreign policies. Like the first readings that are analyzed in class (American Diplomacy by George Kennan and Surprise, Security, and the American Experience by John Lewis Gaddis), this text also brings history into a more understandable context. Aside

established Nato, United Nations and the Truman Doctrine was implemented. Which became the foundation for U.S. foreign policy today. The Cold War arguably started due to Americans fears of communist expansionism in Europe and Asia due to the power vacuum left behind by WWII. The international threat of Communism spreading influenced America’s Cold War interests in Eastern Asia resulting in policies like the Eisenhower

government approaches foreign policy, ultimately pleading for a change in both the way decisions are made and actions are taken in order to preserve the U.S.’s influence and role within the international community. Kupchan and Trubowitz argue that foreign policy failures and mistakes are not a result of a lack of resources, but a result of a divided government whose decisions are only driven by petty rivalries and their own political interests. They highlight the contradicting foreign policy aims of the democratic

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

significance of isolationism for American foreign policy? Was it a wise policy for the US prior to 1945? Although Jentleson acknowledges in “The Historical Context” that the United States has never been truly isolationist due to economic interests (Jentleson, 83), the belief in maintaining a distance from the affairs of Europe was prevalent in the country from the presidency of George Washington until the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. The basis of this policy can be attributed to both geographical

Hegemony is one of few different logics pertaining to American foreign policy. It is defined as “preponderant influence or authority, especially of one nation over another” (Callahan, 2004, p. 12). In other words, the United States can be seen as the dominate nation over all other nations. This concept was first mentioned in Notes on the Southern Question (1926) by Antonio Gramsci and was defined as “a system of class alliance in which a ‘hegemonic class’ exercised political leadership over ‘subaltern

was a new trend as even during the Cold War the economic aid exceeded the military one. From 2002 to 2003, the number of Latin American troops trained by U.S. programmes, mostly stationed in the ‘drug war states’, doubled (Chomsky, 2010; LeoGrande, 2007:357). At the beginning of his mandate, President GW Bush promised Latin America would be a priority for U.S. foreign policy. The challenge for the new administration was to set a new relationship that would take into account the region’s economic and