Global politics refers to politics that is conducted at a global rather than a national or regional level (Heywood, 2011). The key players in this are not the politicians in a specific country but rather a group of states dealing at an international level. Their interactions sometimes lead to events which will shape global politics. Global politics is sometimes determined by regional and domestic affairs of a state – their foreign policies or relationship with other countries. This paper will discuss the U.S. Pivot to Asia and how it affects Global Politics. Not long after the end of the Cold-War, the United States sought different foreign policies and geopolitical strategies in order to avoid a single country to dominate the Europe and …show more content…
The answer to this is the foreign policies that are developed by the United States to ensure its future in world affairs and global politics. In the 21st century, the world is often described to be highly globalized which makes the decision of a particular state, especially if it is powerful to affect not only specific countries but rather the whole world. Foreign policy was designed by heads of government with the aim of achieving domestic and global agendas (Hussain, 2011). In the case of the United States, the Pivot to Asia was proposed and created as a foreign policy for the US to position itself in the Asia-Pacific to maintain its control in the region through the façade of economic and military alliance. Many domestic entities influence foreign policy such as the current state of the country, the objectives and domestic policies of the head of state, economic capabilities, and public opinion inter alia. The United States today is still considered as the most powerful country in the world but in order to remain so, it must develop foreign policies that will safeguard its interest. This is also the objectives of the current American administration hence the Pivot to Asia was created. This is how Global Politics is affected in the domestic
Soviet Union and United States wanted to put the halves back together, but had different ideas of how the government should be run, which caused tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States to escalate. The United States thought that the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism to surrounding nations. The United States focused on communism, to start, President Harry S Truman created a foreign policy called the Truman Doctrine to defend the Soviet's political pushes. With the policy established, the United States would contribute any forces or supplies needed to those nations under fire from outside and in-house forces. The plan was set to defend areas anywhere from Asia to Europe.
The second document highlights the National Security Council 68, a central document of the Cold War that laid out the strategic foundation for American foreign policy after the devastating decline of western European powers during World War II left the United States and Soviet Union as the dominant nations. The National Security Council argues that the Soviet Union poses a threat due to “being animated by a new fanatic faith” in communism to impose “absolute authority over the world” (Doc 2). This type of behavior is anti-ethical to the American values, so the fight between America and the Soviet Union was inevitable. The document outlined possible responses of isolation, diplomatic efforts to negotiate, or the rapid buildup of strength of
Post World War II America was one of the most militarily active periods in American history, having been involved in three wars, spanning roughly from 1947 to 1992, in order to stop the spread of communism. Overall, the United States permanently broke its previous isolationist policy in an attempt to promote democracy throughout the world; however, the wars proved to have serious negative effects on America. America was impacted by the military involvement in the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War. Shortly after the end of World War II, America and Russia, the two super world powers emerging from the war, divided various parts of Eurasia—namely Germany and Korea—between themselves. Following America’s decision to maintain world
During the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century United States main goal was to imperialize other territories. After the Spanish- American War, the United States became an imperialist power by annexing the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Samoa. Americans also developed overseas trade with China and Japan. The United States proposition was to expand their region because they wanted to influence other nations for new trading locations, more resources and the increase of military protection. In spite of the fact that they had the same proposition, their political and economical motives were departed.
A Nation’s foreign policy is shaped by the
After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as global superpowers. Each country had a different type of government and economy. The United States was a democracy and believed in capitalism, while the Soviet Union was led by a dictator and believed in communism. This forced the United States to adopt a new foreign policy known as containment. Containment means Containing communism from spreading .
The Cold War was a time when The United States not only secured it’s place as an influencer of international affairs, but explored its new standing as a rival to other world leaders. Immediately following World War 2, The USSR and America’s relationship began to dissolve as fundamental differences in basic beliefs for government and military organization became clear, and without a common enemy to unite the two, tension and conflict would separate the superpowers for almost 45 years. The policy of containment, The Truman Doctrine, and NSC-68 would each play a pivotal role in the Unites States stretching its hand of democracy into foreign lands, and using military force against the regimes that began to stand in freedom’s way. Beginning in 1946, the Policy of Containment was proposed by George Kennan in a document now titled, The Long Telegram. He presented his hopes that the United States would attempt to keep communism and regimes within their current borders.
Entering WWII brought America out of its depression and into the complicated world of political affairs. The change of U.S. foreign policy from the end of the First World War to the end of the Korean War changed drastically as the U.S. became a stronger world power. From isolationism to encouragement of interventions, it can be said that the U.S. reversed its policy within a few decades. The shift in its policy can be attributed to the international wars that got the U.S. involved with world politics, involvement of U.S. presidents in the world affairs, and the growing power of other foreign powers, such as the Soviet Union. Wars are the one of the central factors in international affairs.
Due to this, the US developed a isolationist policy and instead focused on national politics. Conversely, during the 1960s the US was in the middle of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The US fought to contain communism's spread and assert its world dominance throughout this decade. While the global climate at the time may have been different, looking through a cultural lens inside the US there are many similarities between
Due to limited resources, interference in other regions, even if covered by the Truman Doctrine, was considered undesirable because China and Palestine were less important than the restoration of Europe. In addition, at this time, the Truman Administration is moving away from the doctrine of containing communism and moving on to a strategy of containing the Soviet Union. This was also part of the strategy in
“Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rival ship, interest, humor, or caprice? It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world... we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.” This quote from George Washington in his 1796 farewell address describes the opinion of the United States for a majority of its history. Americas public opinion and national policy had the purpose of minimizing the risk of entering another war.
The United States and the Soviet Union’s alliance came to an end from 1945-1950. Then from 1947 to 1991, the Cold War took place and these two nations were competitors at every thing they did during the war. Both nations wanted to have the main influence an impact on life throughout the world. They wanted global charge and other nations to follow the same economic and political systems. The Cold War put both of these nations at test to see who could succeed the most.
Before the United States entered World War II, Americans had deemed isolationism to be the answer to European conflict. While Theodore Roosevelt desired to take action,
"The Cold War was an ideological contest between the western democracies especially the United States and the Communist countries that emerged after the Second World War" (Tindall 972). The United States and the Soviet Union had differences over issues such as human rights, individual liberties, economic freedom, and religious belief. "Mutal suspicion and a race to gain influence and control over the so called nonaligned or third world countries further polarized" (Tindall 945). After the WWII Soviets dominate European countries and thought the U.S. had the same motives.
power was shown internationally. Although the Monroe Doctrine took place several years before the Imperialism era, the Monroe Doctrine helped pave the way for the U.S. mission of spreading liberty and democracy. At the time this “mission” that the U.S. had is what helped them be unique compared to other nations, because most of the foreign countries tried to expand their territory instead of promoting liberty. The Imperialism era compares to the Cold War era because in both of these periods the U.S. was trying to promote liberty and democracy. The only difference between the two time periods is that in the Cold War era the U.S. tried to contain communism, so democracy could be preserved.