Section 6.4: Foreign Policy Overview

Section 6.4: Foreign Policy Overview

How does the President handle foreign

policy?

Vocabulary

● Foreign Policy
● Isolationism
● Monroe Doctrine
● Collective Security
● Deterrence
● Detente

What is foreign

policy?

Foreign Policy: everything a nation’s government says and does in world affairs

What is all involved in

American foreign policy?

In the Beginning

●Isolationism: purposeful refusal to become involved in the affairs of the rest of the
world

should desire as little political connection as possible

●Doesn’t require complete separation
○Treaties and foreign trade

●Monroe Doctrine: stated an attempt of
European influence in Western Hemisphere
was a threat to peace and safety with the
U.S.

Preach!

World War I

●Forced U.S. out of isolationism
○Use of U-boats attacking ships in North Atlantic

○Joined to “make the world safe for democracy”

World War II - Cold War

●Isolationism officially ended
○“Arsenal of democracy”
■Supplied majority of
weapons and materials
needed to win WWII

○World military power

●Collective Security: working
together to keep international peace
and order
○Creation of the United Nations

●Foreign policy became about
relationship between superpowers

Use of Deterrence

●Deterrence: strategy of maintaining strong
military to discourage or prevent an attack by a hostile power
○Used after WWII and during tension with
Soviet Union

The Cold War

Containment: United States
policy of trying to prevent
Communism from spreading
past the U.S.S.R.

●Proxy Wars in the Cold War
○U.S. and Soviet Union fought
using other countries as
battlefields

○Korea: divided N. & S.

○Vietnam: Communist

Policy of Detente

●Detente: policy of purposefully
attempting to improve relations
with the Soviet Union and China
○Mostly successful in China
When U.S. recognized the
People’s Republic of China

○Not so much in Soviet Union

●Cold War Ends
○Reagan and Gorbachev finally able to ease long standing tensions

Recent Foreign Policy

The Middle East

●Policy torn in two directions:
○Supporting Israel

○Importance of Arab oil

●U.S. recognized Israel as a
country as soon as the United Nations did

●U.S. worked with U.N. to get
countries to form peace
agreements

●Middle East is known for civil
wars and overthrowing
dictatorships with new ones

Afghanistan & Iraq

●Afghanistan
○Soviet invasion led to era of civil war

○Rise of Taliban & Osama bin Laden

○Policy changed to destroy Taliban in
Afghanistan

●Iraq
○Iraq leader Saddam Hussein agreed to
destroy chemical and biological weapons

○U.S. & U.N. did not believe it was true

○Second Gulf War
■Iraq conquered

■Saddam Hussein’s caught, tried,
executed