Foreign relations of the United States

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The United States has vast economic, political and military influence on a global scale, which makes its foreign policy a subject of great interest and discussion around the world.

Goals of U.S. foreign policy repeatedly mentioned and emphasized by U.S. officials are:

  • Protecting the safety and freedom of all American citizens, both within the United States and abroad.
  • Defense policy and procurement decisions related to force posture.
  • Promotion of peace, freedom (most notably of speech and enterprise), and democracy in all regions of the world.
  • Furthering free trade, unencumbered by tariffs, interdictions and other economic barriers, and furthering capitalism in order to foster economic growth, improve living conditions everywhere, and promote the sale and mobility of US products to international consumers who desire them.
  • Bringing developmental and humanitarian aid to foreign peoples in need.

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Decision-making

The current President of the United States is George W. Bush. The President is Commander in Chief of the U.S. military, and as such has broad authority over the armed forces once they are deployed. The current Secretary of State is Condoleezza Rice; the Secretary of State is the foreign minister of the United States and is the primary conductor of state-to-state diplomacy.

The Congress of the United States has the power to declare war, and the President can only deploy the U.S. military when granted approval from Congress. The Congress also holds the exclusive right to approve treaties signed by the President. Congress is likewise responsible for passing bills that determine the general character and policies of United States foreign policy.

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Brief history

During the American Revolution, the United States established relations with several European powers, convincing France, Spain, and the Netherlands to intervene in the war against Britain, a mutual enemy. In the period following, the U.S. oscillated between pro-French and pro-British policies. In general, the U.S. remained aloof from European disputes, focusing on territorial expansion in North America.

After the Spanish colonies in Latin America declared independence, the U.S. established the Monroe Doctrine, a policy of keeping European powers out of the Americas. U.S. expansionism led to war with Mexico and to diplomatic conflict with Britain over the Oregon Territory and with Spain over Florida and later Cuba. During the American Civil War, the U.S. accused Britain and France of supporting the Confederate States and trying to control Mexico, but after that, the U.S. was unchallenged in its home territory. Through the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, it strove to be the dominant influence in the Americas, trying to weaken European influence in Latin America and occasionally intervening to establish puppet governments in weak states.

As U.S. power grew, it began to look at interests farther abroad, particularly in the pursuit of trade. It occupied territories in the Pacific, such as Hawaii and the Philippines, demanded the opening of Japan to trade, and competed with other powers for influence in China. During World War I, the United States was among the victorious Allies, after which it returned to more isolationist policies. The United States entered World War II in 1941, again on the Allied side. After the war, it was a major player in the establishment of the United Nations and became one of five permanent members of the Security Council.

During the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy sought to limit the influence of the Soviet Union around the world, leading to the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and diplomatic actions like the opening of China and establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It also sought to fill the vacuum left by the decline of Britain as a global power, leading international economic organizations such as the WTO and GATT. By the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. had military and economic interests in every region of the globe.

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Diplomatic relations

The United States has one of the largest diplomatic presences of any nation. Almost every country in the world has both a U.S. embassy and an embassy of its own in Washington, D.C.. Only a few nations do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States. They are:

In practical terms however, these lack of formal relations do not impede the U.S.'s communication with these nations. In the cases where no U.S. diplomatic post exists, American relations are usually conducted via Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, or another friendly third-party. In the case of the Republic of China, de facto relations are conducted through the American Institute in Taiwan. The U.S. also operates an 'Interests Section' in Havana, Cuba. While this does not create a formal diplomatic relationship, it fulfils most other typical embassy functions.

The U.S. maintains a Normal Trade Relations list and several countries are excluded from it, which means that their exports to the United States are subject to significantly higher tariffs.

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Allies

German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, president George W. Bush
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German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, president George W. Bush

The United States is a founder of NATO, the world's largest military alliance. The 26 nation alliance consists of Canada and much of Europe. Under the NATO charter, the United States is compelled to defend any NATO state that is attacked by a foreign power. This is resricted to within the North American and European areas, for this reason the U.S. was not compelled to participate in the liberation of the Falkland Islands for example.

The United States also has several "Major Non-NATO allies" which is a distinction given to certain states which are unable to join NATO for geographic reasons. Each non-NATO allied state has a unique relationship with the United States, involving various military and economic partnerships and alliances. The designated Major Non-NATO allies are:

Negotiations in July, 2005 with India seem to promise India's addition to this list [1] [2]

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Criticism and responses

Critics of U.S. foreign policy tend to respond that these goals commonly regarded as noble were often overstated and point out what they see as contradictions between foreign policy rhetoric and actions:

  • The mention of peace as opposed to the long list of U.S. military involvements
  • The mention of freedom and democracy as opposed to the many former and current dictatorships that receive(d) U.S. financial or military support, especially in Latin America and the Middle East.
  • The mention of free trade as opposed to U.S. import tariffs (to protect local industries from global competition) on foreign goods like wood and steel.
  • The mention of U.S. generosity as opposed to the low spendings on foreign developmental aid (measured as percentage of GDP) when compared to other western countries.
  • The mention of environment safety as opposed to the negative to sign environmental treaties (for instance the Kyoto Protocol)

There are a variety of responses to these criticisms. For instance, some argue that the increased American military involvement around the world is an outgrowth of the inherent instability of the world state system as it existed in the late 19th Century. The inherent failings of this system led to the outbreak of World War I and World War II. The United States has assumed a prominent peacekeeping role, naturally on its own terms, due to the easily demonstrable inter-state insecurity that existed before 1945.

Other realist critics, such as the late George F. Kennan, have noted that the responsibility of the United States is only to protect the rights of its own citizens, and that therefore Washington should deal with other governments as just that. Heavy emphasis on democratization or nation-building abroad, realists charge, was one of the major tenets of President Woodrow Wilson's diplomatic philosophy. According to realists, the failure of the League of Nations to enforce the will of the international community in the cases of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan in the 1930s, as well as the inherent weakness of the new states created at the Paris Peace Conference, demonstrated the folly of Wilson's idealism.

There is also criticism of human rights abuse, some of the most important examples are: the U.S.-run detention camps in Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), Abu Ghraib (Iraq) and other places voiced by, e.g. the Council of Europe and Amnesty International. Amnesty International in its Amnesty International Report 2005 says that: "the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay has become the gulag of our times" [3]. This report also mentions the use of double standards in the US government: the US president "has repeatedly asserted that the USA was founded upon and is dedicated to the cause of human dignity". (Theme of his speech to the UN General Assembly in Sep 2004). But some memorandums emerged after the Abu Ghraib scandal "suggested that the administration was discussing ways in which its agents could avoid the international ban on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" [4].

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International disputes

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Illicit drugs

United States foreign policy is influenced by the efforts of the U.S. government to halt imports of illicit drugs, including cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. This is especially true in Latin America, a focus for the U.S. War on Drugs. Those efforts date back to at least 1880, when the U.S. and China completed an agreement which prohibited the shipment of opium between the two countries.

Over a century later, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act requires the President to identify the major drug transit or major illicit drug-producing countries. In September 2005 [5], the following countries were identified: Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. Two of these, Burma and Venezuela are countries that the U.S. considers to have failed to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements during the previous twelve months. Notably absent from the 2005 list were the People's Republic of China and Vietnam; Canada was also omitted in spite of evidence that criminal groups there are increasingly involved in the production of MDMA destined for the United States and that large-scale cross-border trafficking of Canadian-grown marijuana continues. The U.S. believes that The Netherlands are successfully countering the production and flow of MDMA to the U.S.

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Military aid

The U.S. provides military aid through many different channels. Counting the items that appear in the budget as 'Foreign Military Financing' and 'Plan Colombia', the U.S. spent approximately $4.5 billion in military aid in 2001, of which $2 billion went to Israel, $1.3 billion went to Egypt, and $1 billion went to Colombia, a country with the worst Human Rights Record in the Western Hemisphere according to Amnesty International.

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See also

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External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_United_States"
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