America's Foreign Policy

     The last essay for my government course through Tulsa Community College.

     "George Washington, being elected our country’s first president, set a precedent for most of the basic rules of the office. One of these  rules was how the fragile new nation should approach foreign policy. His solution? If the European countries left the United States alone, we would stay out of the affairs of the Old World. This policy, generally called isolationism, was basically the status quo for the next 150 years until World War II, and was further strengthened by the Monroe Doctrine, which said that no European colonies could be established in the New World; if that was met, America would not get involved in whatever happened in Europe.

     This explains our lack of interest in the 19^th century’s power struggles and rearrangement of territory between France, Germany, England, Spain, Austria, Russia and everyone else. That lack of interest was partially because we had the Civil War to worry about, but in general it turned out to be a good plan, as America became a dominant player in world affairs due to the Industrial Revolution.

We entered World War I rather reluctantly and once that was concluded, due to the horrors of war and the 1919 Flu Epidemic, reverted back to our isolationist policy. The Great Depression passed as the Axis powers grew and flourished in Germany, Italy, and surrounding countries. Once Pearl Harbor was bombed, we entered World War II and entered the phase of interventionalism. As the United States became one of the main superpowers in the post-WWII era, their former ally of the Soviet Union became the other, setting up a decades-long stalemate known as the Cold War.

     The ideological divide between the West’s capitalism and the East’s communism led to a flurry of alliances with like-minded countries, much of that aid militaristic in nature. Nuclear weapons were stockpiled and upgraded on a regular basis, and the U.S.’ efforts to contain communism led to getting involved in Korea and Vietnam, and a third world war looked imminent with the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Nixon’s foreign policy adviser Henry Kissinger advocated for a new policy towards the USSR and China called détente, a French term for relaxation of strained relations, and things gradually improved over the 1970’s with China through “Ping-Pong Diplomacy”. The chill was back in the Cold War in the 80’s, though, represented best by the politically-charged atmosphere of the Olympics. Once the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the biggest threat came from a different direction – the Middle East.

     Since the Gulf War, and especially after September 11, the U.S. has actively intervened both for itself and its allies in combating terrorism throughout Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan; first in the Gulf War and then in the Iraq War from 2003-2011. Obama seems to be attempting to stabilize Afghanistan as a nation, as well as attempting to stabilize other Middle Eastern nations.  

     The rise of the European Union and the attractive low-cost/high profit structure of moving large amounts of American jobs overseas has definitely had an impact on foreign relations, mainly in the role that the U.S. has shifted from producing commodities and exporting them across the globe to relying on the labors and convenience of other countries creating materials and products to Americans to use. In this case, the United States’ status as top player in global economic affairs has been affected."