US Foreign Policy in 20 th Century

Muhammad Naseer Ahmad Taib

Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
GC University, Lahore.
 US FOREIGN POLICY SETTINGS IN 20TH
CENTURY
• Main approach of US foreign policy was not to engage with the
powers in Europe till its interests would not damaged.
• US was ready to enter in the 20th century as an emerging
superpower with world wide political, economic, and military
interests.
• It has successfully extended its national territory across North
America and the Pacific Ocean.
• Its population become double between 1865-1890 because of the
immigrants from Europe for economic opportunities.
• Its economic output had exceeded many European states.
• More American lived in cities than in rural areas.
• Industrial production contributed more than the agricultural
products.
• To gain overseas markets became a national priority.
• In 1899 US adopted Open Door Policy that was designed to prevent
China from being exploited European states only. interests.
 PRE-WORLD WAR I US FOREIGN
POLICY (1900-1914)
20th century was a difficult century for US in
multiple context.
• How it has to maintain its dominance in Pacific
World?
• What kind of policy it has to adopt in the
Eastward?
• How it mange the regional order?
• How domestic politics impacted US foreign
policy?
 US FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD LATIN
AMERICA-GOOD NEIGHBOUR OR
REGIONAL HEGEMON
• US followed Monroe Doctrine to established its relations with the
neighbours with some ‘changes’ made by the President Roosevelt in
1904 in which he gave US the responsibilities of “International Police
Power,”
• US has established its hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.
• It was not a good neighbours because it was sharing the hemispheric
space with others on its own terms and dominating economically for
the sake of its own prosperity.
• It was good neighbours for those who were less powerful and accepted
their hegemony. For them it is promoting democracy and acting
respectfully and accept their rights and privileges as independent and
sovereign state.
• Latin American states saw this approach positively because USA was
helping them to maintain their sovereignty.
• Actually USA was doing it to prevent other powers to engage
themselves in the region.
CONT…
• President Roosevelt believed in the theory of Social
Darwinism which means war is inevitable and Nobel under
the mandate of ‘civilizing them’.
• US followed, "carrot or stick" sometimes refers to the realist
concept of soft and hard power. The carrot in this context
could be the promise of economic or diplomatic aid between
nations, while the stick might be the threat of military action.
• If any of regional state wanted some debt from the OLD
POWER in the regions, then US can prevent it unilaterally.
• This policy become the basis for intervention and extended
military operations in Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Haiti,
Mexico and Nicaragua.
• US troops remained in Haiti for 20 years.
• In Cuba and Nicaragua off and on 25 years.
 US MILITARY INTERVENTIONS IN LATIN AMERICA
CUBA: (1998-1922)
– 1898-1902
– 1906-09
– 1912
– 1917-1922
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: (domini-kan)
– 1916-1924
HAITI:
– 1915-1935
MEXICO:
– 1914
– 1916-17
NICARAGUA: (Ni-kra-gwuh)
– 1909-10
– 1912-25
– 1926-33
PANAMA:
In 1903 a US sponsored revolution came in Panama. After a period of joint American–Panamanian
control, the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government in 1999. It is now managed and
operated by the Panamanian government-owned Panama Canal Authority.
– In 1903 Canal Zone was acquired
HONDURAS: (on-du-ras)
– 1924-25
US FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD EUROPE
(1900-1945)
 CONT…
As it was discussed earlier, US focused only on domestic politics,
toward its west and the region due to number of reasons;
• It was time When Europe was passing through the phase of
political challenges.
• US did not want to engage with the powers in Europe till its
interests would not damaged.
• President Roosevelt was aspiring to have dominance in the Europe
but Geo-strategic politics of Europe has ended the relative Calm of
Europe.
• President Woodrow Wilson sought to keep the United State
‘Neutral’. But it could not maintain its policy of detachment once
the conflict in Europe extended into the Atlantic Ocean.
• At the same time US was also looking into geo-political
environment of Europe.
 Followings are the reasons that forced
US to engaged with European states;
• Unification of Germany in 1871 and its extended influence in the region.
• Russian Revolution of 1917 and its ideological spread in Eastern Europe has
forced it to engage in European regions.
• The German navy ship began to attack merchant ships to extend its control and
influence in the region. Most of ships were owned and operated by Americans.
• Its non involvement policy ended when on May 1915 German submarine
known as (U-boat) destroyed the British Ocean liner Lusitania, whose
passengers had included 128 American citizens.
• Even in such a tense environment US managed two more years without War or
conflict in Europe.
• The prospect of German control over all Europe and implications for US security
prompted Congress to declare war against Germany in 1917.(First World War
(1914 – 1918)
• President Woodrow Wilson was reluctant to send U.S. troops to Mexico in
1914, but “yielded to pressure from American business interests, cabinet
members, newspapers, and representatives of the Southwest. He send the
troops because he claimed that U.S. troops invaded because Victoriano
Huerta's government refused to apologize for the Dolphin Incident/Tampico
incident, which happened when U.S. sailors were arrested in Tampico during a
trip to resupply the U.S.S. Dolphin. USS Dolphin (PG-24) was a gunboat
 WORLD I SITTINGS
• Central Powers (mainly Germany, Austria-
Hungary, and Turkey)
• against the Allies (mainly France, Great
Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917,
the United States).
 PARIS CONFERENCE
• Britain, France and the USA won the First World War. In 1919 their leaders met
together in Paris to decide on the future of Europe and the world. These leaders
were known as Big Three. (Woorow Wilson of USA, David Lloyd (Loaid) George
of UK and George Clemenceau (KALY MO-SO) Prime minster of France.)
• They agreed that there should be peace in the world and raise their concern
about Germany.
• Problems for the Winners:
– Germany has nearly defeated Britain, Russia and France single-handed.
– Communists had seized power in Russia and German Russian Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
of 1918 in which Russia lost huge areas of territory.
– Central and Eastern Europe were in chaos.
– The British and France had entered into a number of secret treaties in which they
have given Japan a special treatment in Asia while USA had its reservation on issue of
Manchuria.
• Difference among Big Three.
– In the war all were expecting American Help but after the war they had different
opinion.
– America was in the favour of JUST PEACE as mention in Wilson’s 14 Points.
– While others were in the favour of REPARATION. They have their self interests.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
• During the early months of 1919 the Big Three made discussion about the
restoration of peace in the world but failed to have consensus because they
had divergent views.
• In June 1919 they finally agreed about how Germany should be treated. This
settlement was Called the Treaty of Versailles.
– The league of Nation and self-determination.
– The Mandate: Britain and France wanted to divided German and Turkish colonies
but US wanted that they must be ruled by LEAGUE. All agreed that they will look
after these areas on the behalf of the League. The lands were to be known as
‘MANDATE’. The German colonies in Africa were divided among Britain, France
and South Africa.
– German Loss of Territory: In the north of Europe new states; Poland, Lithuania,
Estonia and Latvia were set up under the principle of self-determination .
German had annexed these Baltic states from Russia.
– France was in the favour of powerful Poland because it can weaken the future
position of Germany.
– The French wanted the largely German-Speaking port of Danzig to be given to
Poland to strengthen Polish Corridor while Britain was against it and wanted to
make it a “Free City” under the complete control of LEAGUE.
– War guilt and reparations: Under the clause 231 of the treaty, the concept of war
guilt and payment of reparation was used.
 US FOREIGN POLICY BETWEEN WORLD
WARS (1919-39)
• Warren Harding won the 1920 presidential election on the promise of staying
out of global affairs, and by arguing that the United States needed normalcy
and a focus on internal problems.
• Harding declared, “America's present need is not heroics (herolic), but healing;
not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but
adjustment; not surgery, but serenity (seranetee); not the dramatic, but the
dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise (eqwa-poize); not submergence
in internationality, but sustainment.
• Components of normalcy:
• World War I and Spanish flu(19181920) that infected an estimated 500 million
people and Great depression of 1930 and their impacts on socio-politico-
economic aspects of life was indescribable.
• He argued that the solution was to seek normalcy by restoring life to how it
was before the war. Harding's conception of normalcy for the 1920s included
deregulation (removal of restriction) , civic engagement, and isolationism.
• He followed the Wilsonian tradition of regarding large armies and navies as a
threat to peace. Navel Disarmament
CONT…
• Warren Harding was eager to reduce spending (and taxes) and saw
the navy as a prime place to cut.
• The Harding administration, therefore, organized an international
conference in Washington, DC, in December 1921. Conference
yielded three treaties that helped preserve peace in East Asia and
the Pacific region for the next 10 years.
– In the Four-Power Pact, signed by Britain, France, Japan, and the
United States, each nation agreed to respect the others’ island
possessions in the Pacific.
– The Five-Power Pact, which included the preceding powers plus Italy,
set limits on the numbers and types of warships each signatory could
possess.
– Finally, in the Nine-Power Treaty of 1922, the aforementioned five
nations, joined by China, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal,
pledged to uphold the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China.
(Japan, meanwhile, sought to solve its economic problems by invading
Manchuria (part of China) in 1931, in clear violation of the Nine-Power
Treaty and the Kellogg-Briand Pact. The Hoover administration refused
to recognize the conquest of Manchuria as legitimate, but it did
nothing more
 CONT… Europe
• The war had radically altered the position of the United States in the global economy.
In 1914, it had been the world’s largest debtor ( negative ), but by 1920, it was the
largest creditor (positive) .
• Postwar Europe was the most important market for American exports. Europe was
also crying out for American capital, and Wall Street banks were prepared to offer it,
as long as conditions appeared stable enough to bring a return on their investments.
American banks and corporations thus had a strong interest in helping Europe get
back on its feet.
• Dawes Plan: When Germany was suffering from hyperinflation in 1924, an American
banker and Harding administration official named Charles Dawes headed a
commission that sought to address the situation. His solution, which became known
as the Dawes Plan, lent Germany millions of dollars from New York banks, enabling
Germany to pay reparations to the former Allies as mandated by the Versailles Treaty
and to rebuild and modernize its heavy industry.
• The German economy quickly turned around, and the second half of the decade saw
a general improvement in the economies of the other countries of Western Europe
as well.
• Four years later, when the German government sought to renegotiate its reparations
payments, it was once again an American business executive – Owen Young, founder
of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) – who was called in to broker a deal. The
Young Plan reduced the total amount of reparations and established a payment plan
by which the burden would be paid off over 58 years.
• Moreover, European nations would have had an easier time recovering from the war
if their products had had greater access to the U.S. market, but both Harding and
Coolidge by keeping tariffs high. 2:1 ratio was there in trade between US and Europe.
 CONT… In Europe
• The Kellogg-Briand Pact . It was a bilateral agreement in which it
was decided that they would not pledge to war with the other.
• Fifteen countries signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact on August 27,
1928, promising to “condemn recourse to war for the solution
of international controversies, and renounce it, as an
instrument of national policy in their relations with one
another.”
• An additional 47 nations signed on in the following months.
• But even as the world agreed to outlaw war, the spirit of
internationalism on which Kellogg-Briand rested was beginning
to fade (fall). In mid-1928, American financiers were increasingly
turning away from foreign investment in favor of buying stocks
on Wall Street.
• Germany, now cut off from its primary source of capital, fell into
recession before the end of that year. Similar downturns were
evident in the United States and Great Britain by the middle of
1929, and after the stock market crash of October 1929, it was
clear that the world was entering a period of economic distress.
 DOMESTIC POLITICS B/T WORLD WARS
• Even US was continuing with non-engagement policy but Millions of
private citizens took a keen interest in global affairs. So, they
participate different kinds of activities to project US concerns;
• Some conservative groups supported different kind of organization
both at home and abroad to prevent future wars. The organizations
were;
– World Peace Foundation,
– League of Nations Association,
– Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,
• These organizations spent vast sums both at home and abroad,
organizing conferences, publishing newsletters, and endowing libraries
and university chairs in international relations both at home and
abroad.
• Radical Groups: Others had more radical reputations, such as the
National Council for the Prevention of War, the Fellowship of
Reconciliation, and the Women’s International League for Peace and
Freedom. These organizations frequently collaborated with one
another, with larger groups such as the Young Men’s Christian
Association (YMCA), and with similar organizations abroad to promote
their view that the experience of World War I must never be repeated.
 US FOREIGN POLICY DURING THE ERA
OF ECONOMIC DEPRESSION
IMPACT OF DEPRESSION ON US DOMESTIC ECONOMY
• 24th October 1929 was fateful day in the history of the
world. This was the day when Wall Street Crash and
American stock collapsed. In just one day 13 million share
were sold. In USA;
– The price of Canadian grains falls.
– American loans to European business are recalled, as a result
many European business go bankrupt.
– Dramatic decline in the sale of African raw materials.
– Trade in Brazil coffee collapsed.
– A disastrous fall in the price of Argentinian beef.
– A fall in the price of Australian and New Zealand wool.
– The price of Malaysian tin and rubber fall.
– Japanese silk devastated.
 CONT…
US FOREIGN POLICY IN THE ERA OF ECONOMIC DEPRESSION.
• ISOLATIONLISM/PROTECTIONLISM:
• In 1932 a new President was elected F.D. Roosevelt. Under Roosevelt policy were
even more isolationist. Roosevelt called for a New Deals for America.
– This New Deal Policy was based on government spending on public and private
projects because both the sectors were deeply effected by economic depression of
1930.
– The concern of the policy was to help businessmen and farmers. So, they positively
contribute to the development of the state.
– America imposed high Tariff on the imported goods that resulted economic collapse
in the west and trading states.
It means there were two factors; Spanish flu and Economic depressions which forced
USA to adopt the policy of protectionism but these factors gave ample avenues to
Germany (dictatorship) and Russian (socialist) to experience their modes of
administration to resolve issues. It was argued by many intellectuals that capitalism
has inherent element of economic depression.
– In 1926 Nazi party won only 12 seats.
– In 1928 it won 107 seats under the slogan (Work, Freedom , Bread)
– In 1930 it won 230 seats
– In 1932 November election it won and 1933 Hitler became Chancellor.
– The Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 pact and few days later world war 2 broke out.
 WORLD WAR II AND US
• USA tried its level best to remain isolated from world Politics between
world wars because it want to save itself from the evils of Spanish flu and
economic depression.
• On one side it become successful to save itself from the evils but on the
other hand gave free space to other states to stretch their wings to
challenge US interest in Europe and East Asia i.e, Germany, Italy and Japan
etc
• The “Allies” and the “Axis“. The major Allied Powers were Britain, France,
Russia, China and the United States. The major Axis Powers were
Germany, Italy and Japan.
• In the start of the war, the United States began to provide significant
military supplies and other assistance to the Allies in September 1941.
• United States entered the war in 1941 when The Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor on December 7, 1941, ended the debate over American
intervention in both the Pacific and European theaters of World War II.
The day after the attack, Congress declared war on Imperial Japan with
only a single dissenting vote because it was a direct aggression on US.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial
Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the American naval
base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, just before 8:00 a.m. on Sunday,
December 7, 1941 and killed more than two thousand Americans. The next day,
Congress declared war on Japan. Between 1941-45 US was shifted latest
weapons and warships to the region to teach a lesson to Japan.
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese
city of Hiroshima, and Nagasaki were attacked with nuclear bombs. 140,000
people in Hiroshima and 70,000 people in Nagasaki died immediately. Japan
surrendered just in six days that end to World War II’s in Pacific.
 UNDERSTANDING COLD WAR AND US
FOREGIN POLICY
• It is an ideological confrontation between US and
Russia.
• Both the ideologies considered others as the only
enemy. Capitalists considered socialism as an unnatural
and evil ideology against human freedom and liberty
while socialists took capitalism as an Un-just system
that allows few to accumulate the wealth and left
sufferings for others.
• Both the ideologies were trying their best to heel the
wounds of world war II in all perspectives of human
life.
OBJECTIVES OF US FOREIGN POLICY IN THE
COLD WAR
• The Truman Doctrine, 1947
• With the Truman Doctrine, President Harry S. Truman established that the
United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to
all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian
forces.
• The goal of U.S. Foreign Policy was simple: Containment of the spread of
communism, and thereby the influence of the U.S.S.R. , by supporting
governments or rebel groups that opposed communism. This was
accomplished by supplying aid, weapons and sometimes troops. such as in
the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
• During the Cold War, U.S. diplomacy was focused on halting the spread of
communism and limiting its influence where it already existed. American
politicians believed that promoting democracy would expand individual
liberties for people everywhere.
• Containment was a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the
United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism
 US COLD WAR ‘WORLD ORDER’
• US has made different regional powers to
assure it control in the respective region and it
has to stand with the state in thick and thin
– Europe-British and NATO
– Middle East-Israel
– Africa- South Africa
– South Asia-India even in cold war Pakistan was its
military ally.
– East Asia Japan
 US FOREGIN POLICY IN THE COLD WAR
PACIFIC REGION
• The United States as a Pacific power has to maintained its dominant
position in the pacific region.
• World War II, however, established the United States as the preeminent
military power in the Pacific, albeit/although with a fair share of
challenges.
• The Soviets fought to expand their influence throughout the region,
drawing the United States into several large-scale Cold War conflicts from
Korea to Vietnam.
• More recently, an unpredictable, nuclear-armed regime in North Korea
threatens the region. But the biggest foreign policy questions of the
twenty-first century concern China’s rise and how the United States will
seek to respond to this emerging global power.
• The United States allied with Japan (1951), Australia (1951), the Philippines
(1951), South Korea (1953), Taiwan (1954), and Thailand (1954) to contain
socialism in pacific region UNDER CONTAINMENT US POLICY.
These bilateral agreements meant that if an allied country were attacked,
the United States would be obligated to come to its defense.
US AND CHINA IN THE PECIFIC REGION
• After the Chinese Civil War, the United States refused to recognize Mao
Zedong’s Communist government.
• Instead, Washington cooperated with the newly exiled government in
Taiwan, a strong anti-communist ally.
• But in 1972, Richard Nixon shocked the world by becoming the first sitting
U.S. president to visit mainland China, in an effort to establish relations
between the two countries.
• Nixon, one of the most prominent anti-communist politicians of the Cold
War, suddenly warmed up to Mao’s China for several reasons.
– First, Nixon hoped to split China from the Soviet Union, another communist
country, to weaken the Soviet Union’s position in the world.
– Second, in the midst of the Vietnam War, Nixon sought to isolate North
Vietnam from its patron, China.
– And finally, Nixon believed that working with China was necessary to prevent
it from threatening its neighbors.
– Ultimately, the United States formally recognized Beijing (and cut ties with
Taiwan) in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, ushering in an era of
cooperation between the two countries.
 CONT… CHINA CHAPTER
• In 1979, the United States moved to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of
China (PRC), in the process severing its formal ties to the Republic of China (ROC), commonly
known as Taiwan.
• At the same time, Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) 1979, which made clear that the
United States still had unique commitments to Taiwan and would continue to have strong ties with
it.
• Over the past few decades, the United States has continued to sell Taiwan advanced weaponry,
and it maintains an office that provides unofficial U.S. representation in Taiwan.
• While the TRA states the United States would “consider any effort to determine the future of
Taiwan by other than peaceful means...of grave concern to the United States,” it never clarified
whether the United States would actually come to Taiwan’s defense if it were attacked.
• This ambiguity was intentional. If the United States had clearly promised to defend Taiwan,
Taiwan’s leaders might have been more likely to provoke China and trigger a war.
• On the other hand, if China could be sure that the United States would not intervene to protect
Taiwan, there would be little stopping it from attacking the island.
• Intentional ambiguity has worked successfully over the last few decades to allow the United
States to maintain relations with both the mainland and Taiwan, and to ensure that neither side
disrupts the status quo.
• Recently, however, things are looking less stable. Some experts project that Taiwan could
eventually seek independence, an unacceptable outcome for China.
• Others fear that China may become more aggressive toward Taiwan to distract attention from its
slowing economic growth. On the U.S. side, many believe boosting relations with Taiwan would
send China a strong and necessary message. As these dynamics shift, it is unclear how long the
status quo can continue.
 U.S. TROOPS DEFEND SOUTH KOREA
• The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to
1953. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea.
• Fighting during the Korean War may have ended in 1953, but the United States
never left the peninsula.
• Today, South Korea is home to the largest U.S. overseas military base, hosting
nearly thirty thousand U.S. troops. Given that North and South Korea are still
technically at war, these troops continue to protect South Korea, a U.S. ally, from
potential threats.
• In 2006, the importance of these troops rose dramatically when North Korea
successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. The United States views North Korea’s
nuclear arsenal as a national security threat given that its missiles are capable of
striking the U.S. mainland. But the United States’ options to respond are limited.
With thousands of North Korean artillery pieces pointed straight at South Korea’s
capital Seoul.
• The Vietnam War (also known by other
names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and
US FOREIGN
Cambodia from 1955 to 30 April 1975.
• It was the second of the Indochina Wars and POLICY IN
was a major conflict of the Cold War.
• The war was officially fought between North VIETNAM
Vietnam and South Vietnam, the north was
supported by the Soviet Union, China, and
other communist states, while the south was
supported by the United States and other
anti-communist allies.
• American tactics in Vietnam can be summed
up by the acronym/ abbreviation BEAST
(Bombing, Escalation, Air and artillery, Search
and destroy and Technology).
• The war was a proxy war between the United
States and the Soviet Union.
• It lasted almost 20 years, with direct U.S.
military involvement ending in 1973.
• The conflict also spilled over into neighboring
states, exacerbating/aggravating the Laotian
Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, which
ended with all three countries officially
becoming communist states by 1976.
 US AND The Laos Crisis, 1960–1963
• Its population divided both ethnically and regionally, and its elite disunited,
corrupt, and unfit to lead.” But this surpassingly weak state was the “cork in the
bottle,” as Eisenhower summarized in his meeting with Kennedy; the outgoing
President expected its loss to be “the beginning of the loss of most of the Far
East.”
• The Eisenhower administration had worked for years to create a strong anti-
Communist bastion in Laos, a bulwark against Communist China and North
Vietnam.
• U.S. involvement was considered necessary because North Vietnam had
effectively conquered a large part of the country and was equally
obfuscating/obscuring its role in Laos.
• Under Paris Peace Accord of 1973, US has to exit from Laos Southeast Asia. The
three ruling factions in Laos signed a cease-fire later that year, and by the end of
1973, all US military personnel had left.
• The agreement stated
– Armies from both North and South Vietnam would hold their positions,
– the United States military would withdraw from combat and leave the country,
– and both sides of the conflict would work together to find a peaceful path to
reunification.
 US STEPS TO CONTAIN COMMUNISM IN
EUROPE
THE MARSHAL PLAN, 1947
• On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act
of 1948. It became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of
State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States
provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of
postwar Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion in economic
recovery programs to 17 Western European economies after the end of
World War II.
• Out of which following states got lion share The United Kingdom
received the most ($3 billion), followed by France ($2 billion) and West
Germany ($1.5 billion).
• The goals of the United States were;
– to rebuild war-torn regions,
– To remove trade barriers,
– To modernize industry,
– To improve European prosperity and
– To prevent the spread of communism.
Global Strategy and Foreign Humanitarian Aid:
The purpose of the act was averting communism. Through the
act, the United States could authorize military, economic, and
technical assistance to nation-states with the aim of developing
their welfare and liberation provisionally in the national interest
of the United States.
 DIFFERENT ORGANIZATION TO
STRENGTHEN US IN THE WORLD
• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949
by the United States, Canada, and several Western European
nations to provide collective security against the Soviet
Union. NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the
United States entered into outside of the Western
Hemisphere.
• The United Nations (UN) is an international organization
whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace
and security, develop friendly relations among states. It was
established in 1945, when it came into existence after its
Charter had been ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union,
the United Kingdom, the United States and by a majority of
other signatories. Most of its bureaucracy belong to US and
US is the biggest donor to this organization and try its level
best to us it for its own designs.
 OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
• Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and
Canada (USMCA)
• Asian Development Bank (ADB) (nonregional member)
• Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
• Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (dialogue partner)
• Australia-New Zealand-United States Security Treaty (ANZUS)
• Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
• Black Sea Economic Cooperation Zone (BSEC) (observer)
• Council of Europe (CE) (observer)
• Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) (observer)
• Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)
• Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC)
• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
• European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) (observer)
• Group of Seven (G7)
• Group of Ten (G10)
• Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (G20)
• International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
• International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol)
• International Energy Agency (IEA)
• International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO)
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
• International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO)
• International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA)
• Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
• Organization of American States (OAS)
• Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) (partner)
• South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) (observer)
• Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI) (observer)
• United Nations (UN) - Membership in the UN includes participation in the
UN's Six Principal Organs: the General Assembly, Secretariat, International
Court of Justice, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, and
Trusteeship Council.
• World Bank Group (WBG)
• International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD)
• International Centre for Settlement of
Investment Disputes (ICSID)
• International Development Association (IDA)
• International Finance Corporation (IFC)
• Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
(MIGA)
• World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO)
• World Trade Organization (WTO)
 US FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD LATIN
AMERICA IN COLD WAR
• Latin America is "commonly used to describe South America, Central
America, Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean“
– South American states: The continent is generally taken to include twelve
sovereign states: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana,
Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela; two dependent territories:
the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and
one internal territory: French Guiana .
– Central American states: it is lying between Mexico and South America and
comprising Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala,
and Belize.
– There are thirteen independent countries in the Caribbean. They are Antigua
and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic,
Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St.
 US FOREIGN POLICY TWOARD LATIN AMERICA
DURING COLD WAR
• Latin America is an important region for US because it is
located in the vicinity of USA. US has adopted the policy of
good neighbours or hegemon in the region.
• The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état (Golpe de Estado en
Guatemala de 1954) was the result of a CIA covert operation
code-named PBSuccess. It deposed/overthrown the
democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz
and ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954.
 CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS OF 1962
• US tried its level best to bring Cuba under its control and for this it
had made different military intervention in Cuba between 1898-
1922. Later on US opted engagement and non-engagement policy
in the world and ignore Latin American
• Cuba has had a socialist political system since 1961 based on the
"one state – one party" principle. Cuba is constitutionally defined as
a single party Marxist–Leninist socialist republic.
• The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis in Cuba,
or the Caribbean Crisis, was a 13-day confrontation between the
governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when
American deployments of nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey were
matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba.
• Cuban missile crisis brought US and soviet to the point that nuclear
weapons are not be used .
• The two superpowers soon signed the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty of
1963, which banned aboveground nuclear weapons testing.
 US FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD SOUTH
ASIA IN COLD WAR
• The Cold War with the Soviet Union shaped U.S. foreign policy after
World War II.
• In South Asia, the United States’ main objective was to prevent the
spread of Soviet influence to the newly independent India and Pakistan,
and so it courted both countries with offers of humanitarian and
military aid.
• Pakistani military and government leaders eagerly established warm
relations with the United States, accepting a large aid package in
exchange for allowing the United States to conduct military and
intelligence operations from a base in its country. U-2 incident of 1960
• With a strong army and a capitalist government, Pakistan quickly
became a reliable partner in the fight against communism for the
United States.
• India, on the other hand, became a leader of the Non-Aligned
Movement, a group of countries allied neither with the United States
nor the Soviet Union, and was wary of the strong U.S.-Pakistan
relationship despite itself receiving aid from the United States.
 INDIAN CHAPTER
• The United States recognized India’s value as one of
the world’s most populous countries and continued to
court it as an ally, despite India’s nonaligned status. But
there was one major challenge to a stronger U.S.-India
relationship: India would not accept the United States
as its ally as long as it continued to support its rival
Pakistan.
• This became most evident when the United States
backed Pakistan during the period of cold war which it
viewed as a reliable ally against communism but
Pakistan used it even to defend its eastern border .
That move pushed India away from the United States
and closer to the Soviet Union.
 PREVENTION OF NUCLEAR
PROLIFERATION IN SOUTH ASIA
• One of the main U.S. foreign policy priorities after World War II was
to prevent nuclear proliferation.
• India successfully detonated its first nuclear device in 1974, the
United States was alarmed and President Jimmy Carter called on
India to allow international inspections of its nuclear facilities. India
refused.
• Around the same time, Pakistan began accelerating its own nuclear
program, much to the disapproval of the United States, which was
worried about the Pakistani government’s instability and the
potential for an arms race between India and Pakistan.
Nevertheless, Pakistan went on to acquire the bomb through its
nuclear program spearheaded by nuclear physicist A. Q. Khan.
• Ultimately, the United States was unable to prevent India or
Pakistan from becoming nuclear powers, a situation that
significantly raised the stakes of any future disagreement between
the two rivals.
KASHMIRE ISSUE AND US STANCE
 US FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD MIDDLE
EAST IN COLD WAR
• Middle East includes Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait,
Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Syrian Arab Republic,
Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
• With the goal of preventing the Soviet Union from gaining influence in the
region during the Cold War, American foreign policy saw the deliverance of
extensive support in various forms to anti-communist and anti-Soviet regimes.
• The top priorities for the U.S. with regards to this goal was its support for the
State of Israel against its Soviet-backed neighboring Arab countries during the
peak of the Arab–Israeli conflict of 1948 that is still in progress .
• The U.S. also came to replace the United Kingdom as the main security patron
for Saudi Arabia as well as the other Arab states of the Persian Gulf in the 1960s
and 1970s in order to ensure, among other goals, a stable flow of oil from the
Persian Gulf.
• Camp David and the Peace treaty (1978-79). Carter, Sadat and Begin met Camp
David for 12 days. Two accord were signed 1. Egypt- Israel peace treaty 2. Israel
withdrawal from Sinia peninsula in three years.
 US FOREIGN POLICY IN THE POST-
COLD WAR ERA
THEORATICAL FRAMWROK OF POST-COLD WAR.
• Francis Fukuyma in his book ‘the end of history and the last man’ highlights the
universalization of western liberal democracy as the final form of human
government.
• Few years later Harvard University professor Samuel Huntington in his ‘clash of
civilization and the remaking of world order’ present less optimistic view that
there would be clash of two civilizations west and Islam with prospects to
political and military conflict.
• New York Time columnist Thomas Friedman in his book ‘the world is flat: the
globalized world in the twenty first century’ describes the post world more in
economic context because he thought it as the most dynamic driving dynamic
than liberalism, clash of civilization and power politics as the old system and
globalization as the new system.
• Columbia University professor Richard Betts in his book ‘Nuclear blackmail and
nuclear balance’ was stressing the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons of mass destruction, including those in the hands of terrorists who
might decide they want to stun American policymakers by inflicting enormous
damage even before the event of 9/11/2001.
 OBJECTIVES OF US FOREIGN POLICY IN
THE POST COLD WAR
1. The security and prevent all its possible threats
2. To internationalized American economy.
3. To internationalize domestic issues
4. To address the issues of increasing racial and ethnic diversity-
identity politics
5. To take the position of global missionary to preach globalization,
and democratization.
6. To take the position of world police.
7. To maintenance of U.S. global dominance,
8. To pursue the freedom of trade and development of international
economic institutions, such as the World Trade Organization.
9. To encourage the spread of democracy and peace.
10. To increase global economic interdependence,
11. To enhance the influence of transnational corporations.
 KEY STEPS OF US IN POST COLD WAR
• Despite its great expectations for the new world
post cold ward order, US leaders had to confront
a variety of armed conflicts overseas which
revealed that history had not ‘ended’ with the
demise of the Soviet Union.
• In the post cold war era, there were conflicts in
three regions; The Persian Gulf, Northeast Africa
and Yugoslavia which need American attention
being a watch man of the world.
 THE PERSIAN GULF

The Persian Gulf region produces nearly one third of the world's oil and holds over
half of the world's crude oil reserves as well as a significant portion of the world's
natural gas reserves.
 CONT…
• The first regional conflict erupted in the Persian Gulf before the Soviet collapse was
Iraq’s invasion of neighboring Kuwait on August 2, 1990.
• After defeating the State of Kuwait on 4 August 1990, Iraq went on to militarily
occupy the country for the next seven months.
• Within days, American troops were sent to Saudi Arabia in Operation Desert Shield,
protecting Saudi Arabia from possible attack.
• Within days, the United States led efforts to organize an international coalition,
which, working through the United Nations Security Council, passed Resolution 660
demanding Iraq's immediate and unconditional withdrawal, Resolution 661 imposing
economic sanctions, and Resolution 663 declaring the annexation of Kuwait
unlawful.
• When Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ignored these resolutions, the UN authorized a
military assault (OPERATION DESERT STORN) on Iraqi troops in the Kuwaiti desert.
• The US led assault quickly crushed the Iraqi military.
• Saddam Hussein defied resolutions regarding the incepaction of weapons of mass
destructions.
• On January 9, 1991, Secretary of State James Baker met with Iraqi Foreign Minister
Tariq Aziz in Geneva for several hours in a last ditch effort to avoid war. The meeting
ended in an impasse with Baker finally announcing the talks had failed.
• President George Bush addressed a joint session of Congress a few weeks later and
stated the U.S. could not allow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to seize control of vital
oil resources in the Middle East. President Bush then doubled the size of Allied forces
in the region to 430,000 soldiers.
 US OBJECTIVES IN GULF WAR
• Our objectives are clear:
1. Saddam Hussein's forces will leave Kuwait.
2. The legitimate government of Kuwait will be restored to its
rightful place, and Kuwait will once again be free.
3. Iraq will eventually comply with all relevant United Nations
resolutions, and then, when peace is restored,
4. it is our hope that Iraq will live as a peaceful and cooperative
member of the family of nations, thus enhancing the security and
stability of the Gulf.
5. protect American lives (in particular, free hostages), and “promote
the security and the stability of the Persian Gulf.”
6. The three most serious reasons for involvement were oil, order,
and weapons proliferation. Oil is the most tangible interest,
though not necessarily the most important.
AFRICA
 US AND AFRICA
• The perception of Africa as an unstable region persisted
even after the demise of colonialism and the attainment
of independence.
• US overlooked or excused corruption and economic
mismanagement in African countries such as Kenya,
Somalia, Sudan, Zaire and Liberia that were willing to
oppose Moscow and ready to work for containment.
• For longer period of time US saw Africa through the eyes
of Europe. American’s military assistance to France and
Portugal through NATO for the defense of Europe was
used by the two European powers in their colonial wars in
Africa; France in Algeria (1952-62) and independence of
Guinea from France (1958) and Portugal in Guinea-Bissau,
Angola and Mozambique (1961-74) and civil war in Nigeria
(1967-70)
CONT…
• It might be the perception of America that
rapid decolonization of Africa might lead to
political disorder and create space for soviet
penetration in the continent.
• This whole debate shows US low concern in
Africa in the early era of cold war.
 US STRATEGIES IN AFRICA
• US as police man/superpower responsibilities for a new world
order of greater international cooperation for world peace and
human development and progress.
– The mission of US Peace Corps volunteers in Africa initiated by John
F. Kennedy in 1961.
– In 1970’s and 80’ continued with the same principle.
• To contain Soviet and communist bloc assistance to Marxist-
oriented governments, radical nationalist and liberation
movements.
• To protect Geostrategic interests includes important trade routes;
the Suez Canal, The straits of Bab el Mandeb, the Cape Route.
• American covert assistance to such groups as the National Front
for Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and Total Union for the
Independence of Angola (UNITA) in 1975 to win pre-independence
election.
• US collaborated militarily, economically, diplomatically and in the
sharing of intelligence with white minority governments in South
Africa FOR EXAMPLE Nixon policy to support while minority.
CONT…
• CIA kept prison ANC (African National Congress)
leadership including Nelson Mandela because it
thought a threat to South African governments.
• US allocated selective military assistance and
economic support funds to African states; Kenya,
Ethiopia, Somalia, Morocco and Liberia.
• US found it necessary to support any African
regime however brutal, corrupt and arbitrary that
professed to oppose communism.
• US also Provided relief to thousands of African
refugees to flee their homes by civil turmoil.
• US gave scholarships to Africans.
OUTLINE US INTERVENTION IN AFRICA
• Responses to anticommunist appeals became
the stimulus for US intervention in a number
of domestic conflict in African states;
1. Zaire 1960-64, 1977-78
2. Angola 1975-88
3. Ethiopia-Somalia conflict over Ogaden 1977-78
 POST COLD US POLICY TOWARD
AFRICA
Michael Clough has proposed for a new US policy toward Africa.
1. US has to limit all kinds of unprincipled involvement that was design to
influenced the region.
2. US should have to minimize Eurocentrism in US-Africa policy.
3. Let the African leaders to take the lead with US moral and material
support to resolve local problems.
4. US has to completely abandon the cold war practice of providing
support to corrupt and authoritarian African political leaders.
5. US has to strengthen the various elements in African civil society such as
voluntary organization, women’s group, African NGOs, Churches, youth
groups, professional and civic association, educational and farmer’s
organizations. The purpose of this kind of support was to empower
African people, so, they would account their leaders.
6. Let the African design a regional framework with the help of America
rather than global strategy of cold war.
7. US has to give hospitable international environment in which African
states would be able to access the international market for their goods.