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'''U.S. foreign policy''' covers the foreign relations and diplomacy of the United States since 1775.
{{subpages}}
==American Revolution==
{{TOC|right}}
==Early National Era: 1789-1860==
{{seealso|History of U.S. foreign policy}}
==Late 19th Century==
Ultimate responsibility for '''United States foreign policy''' rests with the [[President of the United States of  America]]. For the ratification of formal treaties, he or she must obtain the advice and consent of the Senate.
==1898-1939==
==1945-1969: Cold War==
*see [[Cold War]]
* [[Korean War]]
* [[Cuban Missile Crisis]]
* [[Vietnam War]]
===Truman: 1945-53===
[[Harry S. Truman]] had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president in April 1945, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice.<ref> By 1946 he had two valuable aides Clark Clifford and George Elsey.</ref>  Truman shifted from FDR's détente to [[containment]] as soon as [[Dean Acheson]] convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests.  They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the [[Truman Doctrine]] of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the [[Marshall Plan]], which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and pumped $12.4 into the European economy, forcing the breakdown of old barriers and encouraging modernization along American lines. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of [[Israel]], making the United States the first major power to do so.  


After his surprise reelection in 1948, Truman brought in [[Dean Acheson]] as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ([[NATO]]) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.
In the modern practice of foreign policy, formally, the senior foreign policy official below the President is the [[U.S. Secretary of State]], [[Hillary Clinton]]. In practice, the critical decisionmakers are the members of the [[National Security Council]], which includes the Secretary of State. Other major influencers are in the National Security Council staff, headed by the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, [[James Jones]]. The [[U.S. Department of Defense]], under Secretary [[Robert Gates]], obviously has a major effect, as does the [[United States intelligence community]], coordinated by [[Director of National Intelligence]] [[Dennis Blair]].


The [[Korean War]] began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S.  protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General [[Douglas MacArthur]] to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as rollback of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea.  The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.  
Foreign policy formulation and execution is structured on regional and functional areas. Over recent years, there has been an attempt to reconcile the regional definitions of the various departments and agencies, so a country is not under one bureau of the State Department but under a different [[Unified Combatant Command]] in the military. This is not completely successful; the countries of the Mediterranean littoral as well as the Levant are under one Assistant Secretary of State, but the [[United States European Command]] is responsible for the former but the [[United States Central Command]] for the latter.


The top-secret [[NSC-68]] of 1950  policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of tripling spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower.
Foreign policy also needs to be considered in  relation to the U.S. and world situation of the time.
==Regional==
===Africa===
U.S African policy is principally focused on the Subsaharan part of the continent. For reasons of colonial sensitivity, the [[United States Africa Command]] is considered a unified subcommand of [[United States European Command]].
===Europe and Eurasia===
===East Asia and Pacific===
[[North Korea]] is the hot spot, and the U.S. regional priority is to insist on the [[Six-Party Talks]], which also recognize China as a key broker.
===Near East===
{{main|U.S. policy towards the Middle East}}
More than in most areas in the world, policies twist and turn and involve multiple countries. Nevertheless, there are some basic principles both for the region and for countries.
====Egypt====
While the U.S. continues to provide major economic support to Egypt, there is increasing concern about succession, with President [[Hosni Mubarrak]] reported to be in poor health.
====Iran====
{{main|U.S. policy towards Iran}}
The Obama administration avoids the military threats implied by the previous administration, by the U.S. or others. While it is giving moral encouragement to the domestic protesters following the 2009 election, it is taking time, establishing a moral position, and waiting on events. It does appear to be holding back on direct engagement at any high level.


==1969 to 1989==
It is quite serious about pressuring Iran to stop what is seen as a nuclear weapons program, b as the best means to accomplish this goal. Instead, a consensus is growing, with allies, to use [[economic warfare]], targeted at Iran's lack of internal petroleum refining capacity, and thus, while ironically an oil producer, a gasoline importer. <ref name=UPI3009-08-03>{{citation
===Nixon and Kissinger===
| title = Obama considers Iran gas cut-off
Kissinger's first priority in office was the achievement of détente with the Soviet Union and China, and playing them off against each other. Recognizing and accepting the Soviet Union as a superpower, Nixon and Kissinger sought both to maintain U.S. military strength and to inaugurate peaceful economic, cultural, and scientific exchanges to engage the Soviet Union in the international system. This policy flourished under Kissinger's direction and led in 1972 to the signing of the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I). At the same time they successfully engineered a rapprochement with Communist China, leading to the astonishing news in 1971 that Nixon would visit China, which he and Kissinger did in 1972.<ref> Margaret Macmillan, ''Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World'' (2008)</ref>  
| journal = United Press International
| url = http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/08/03/Report-Obama-considers-Iran-gas-cut-off/UPI-42911249301096/
| date = 3 August 2009}}</ref>
====Iraq====
{{main|U.S. policy towards Iraq}}
{{seealso|Iraq War}}
====Israel====
====Lebanon====
====Syria====


Aware that China and the Soviet Union were at sword's point, with rival claims to be the true Communists, Nixon and Kissinger used the "Soviet card" to win over Chinba by playing up the Soviet threat to the Chinese as a way of promoting closer relations with China. He even hinted at a US-China alliance to oppose the Soviets, and, with Nixon's trips to Moscow, hinted that China had better come to terms lest the US form an alliance with Moscow. The tactics worked, resulting in a friendly relationship with both Beijing and Moscow. As part of the détente, both powers reduced or ended their aid to North Vietnam, thus allowing a settlement of the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>Evelyn Goh, "Nixon, Kissinger, and the 'Soviet Card' in the U.S. Opening to China, 1971-1974." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(3): 475-502.  </ref>
===South and Central Asia===


===Vietnam===
====Afghanistan and Pakistan====
Nixon and Kissinger worked to achieve a disengagement of U.S. forces fighting in Vietnam. Balancing a policy of "Vietnamization," aimed at returning the burden of actual combat to the South Vietnamese, with repeated shows of U.S. air strength, notably in the bombings of Cambodia and Hanoi, Kissinger met secretly with North Vietnamese leaders in Paris from 1969 on, finally concluding a cease-fire in January 1973, for which he and chief North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize.
{{main|U.S. policy towards Afghanistan}}
===Middle East===
{{main|U.S. policy towards Pakistan}}
One challenge to détente came with the outbreak of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Faced with a threat of Soviet intervention, Nixon put U.S. military forces be placed on worldwide alert. He then employed shuttle diplomacy to secure cease-fires between Israel and the Arab states and to restore U.S. Egyptian diplomatic ties, broken since 1967.
In many respects, it sees this as one problem; the political geography of the area also supports the argument that the [[Durand Line]] border between the two may have been convenient for the British, but does not reflect the boundaries of the [[Pashtun people]].
===Western Hemisphere Affairs===


=== Latin American policies===
==Functional==
The Nixon administration sought to protect the economic and commercial interests of the United States during a period of heightened Latin American nationalism and expropriations, 1969-74. Though the administration initially adopted a flexible policy toward Latin American governments that nationalized American corporations' assets, the influence of Nixon's economic ideology, domestic political pressures, and the advice of his close adviser, Secretary of the Treasury [[John Connally]], led to a more confrontational stance toward Latin American countries. As the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, and Henry Kissinger had warned, however, Latin American countries took an even more anti-US stance and expropriated even more assets. Nixon's "get tough" stance, therefore, had a negative effect on US credibility and influence in the hemisphere.<ref>Hal Brands, "Richard Nixon and Economic Nationalism in Latin America: the Problem of Expropriations, 1969-1974." ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'' 2007 18(1): 215-235. Issn: 0959-2296 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>
A number of these areas will definitely involve more agencies than the Department of State.
* International Organization Affairs (IO)
===Security===
*[[Counterterrorism]]
* [[Peace operations]]
* [[Arms Control]]
* International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN)
===Economic===
* Foreign assistance
* Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs(E)
* Economic, Energy and Business Affairs (EEB)
*[[National Marine Fisheries Service]]
===Democracy promotion and information===
* Democracy and Global Affairs (G)
* Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (R)
* International Information Programs (IIP)
*[[Propaganda]]; [[Voice of America]]; [[Broadcasting Board of Governors]], psychological operations staff, National Clandestine Service, [[Central Intelligence Agency]]
===Cultural===
* Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA)
===Law enforcement, including drug trade===
* International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL)
* [[Drug Enforcement Administration]]
* [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]
* War Crimes Issues (S/WCI)
* Office of Special Investigations, [[U.S. Department of Justice]]
===Human Rights===
* Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM)
* Global Women's Issues (S/GWI)
===Science===
* Global AIDS Coordinator, Office of (S/GAC)
* Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES)
* [[National Science Foundation]]
* [[National Institutes of Health]]
* [[Centers for Disease Control]]
* [[National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration]]
==Doctrines==
{{r|Monroe Doctrine}}
{{r|Containment policy}}
{{r|American exceptionalism}}
===Nuclear deterrence===
===Counterinsurgency===
{{seealso|Vietnam, war, and the United States of America}}
While the U.S. had dealt with insurgencies well before World War II, the situation increased significantly in the Cold War. The 1940 U.S. Marine Corps ''Manual for Small Wars'' remains a reference based on experience in Latin America and elsewhere.


Kissinger and Nixon permitted covert [[CIA]] operations designed to destabilize the anti-American Allende regime in [[Chile, history|Chile]]
In Vietnam, which combined both insurgency and proxy war, the U.S. struggled to find an effective counterinsurgency strategy, eventually refocused on conventional military action, and left the country, which was overthrown by a conventional invasion.
===South Asia===
During the South Asian crisis in 1971, the White House, stood firmly behind Pakistani president Yahya Khan and demonstrated a disdain for India and particularly its leader, [[Indira Gandhi]] because of India's tilt toward the Soviet Union. Many analysts believed that Pakistan's role as a conduit of rapprochement with China and Kissinger's focus on geopolitical concerns greatly influenced the American policy decision in 1971. These claims have now been confirmed by recently declassified documents. The US undertook at least three initiatives to dissipate the Bangladesh movement but which backfired and contributed to the bloodshed instead of bringing it to an end.


Nixon and Kissinger were "realists" who deemphasized idealistic goals like anti-communism or promotion of democracy worldwide, because those goals were too expensive in terms of America's economic capabilities. Instead of a Cold War they wanted peace, trade and cultural exchanges. They realized that Americans were no longer willing to tax themselves for idealistic foreign policy goals, especially for containment policies that never seemed to produce positive results. Instead Nixon and Kissinger sought to downsize America's global commitments in proportion to its reduced economic, moral and political power. They rejected "idealism" as impractical and too expensive; neither man showed much sensitivity to the plight of people living under Communism. Kissinger's realism fell out of fashion as idealism returned to American foreign policy with Carter's moralism emphasizing human rights, and Reagan's rollback strategy aimed at destroying Communism.
Counterinsurgency (COIN) is alive and well in Afghanistan and Iraq, and there is a distinct split among soldier-statesmen as to the correct balance among [[counterterrorism]], "conventional" military forces, and [[counterinsurgency]] to include [[peace operations#nation-building|nation-building]].  Among the best-known counterinsurgents are General [[David Petraeus]].  Petraeus' doctoral dissertation dealt with U.S. policy toward Vietnam, <ref name=PetPhD>{{citation
| url = http://www.brianbeutler.com/postvietnameramilitary.pdf
| title = The American Military and the Lessons of Vietnam: A study of military influence and the use of force in the post-Vietnam era
| publisher = doctoral dissertation, Princeton University
| year = 1987
}}</ref> a far more active role, than traditional for generals, in developing the Army doctrinal manual on counterinsurgency. <ref name = FM3-24>{{citation  | publisher = US Department of the Army 
| author = [[John Nagl]], David Petraeus, [[James Amos]], [[Sarah Sewall]]
  | title = [[Field Manual 3-24:  Counterinsurgency]]
  | date = December 2006
  | url = http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-24.pdf}}</ref>


===Ford years===
Sometimes informally called the "COINdanistas", this is an influential school of thought that blends political, social and military strategies. The [[Center for a New American Security]], a strategic think tank, has many of its principals in the Obama Administration. Petraeus, now the U.S. commander for the Middle East, has used advisers including  David Kilcullen and [[H.R. McMaster]],  known for open criticism of policies, even while advising. <ref name=WP2007-02-05>{{citation
Nixon resigned in 1974 under the threat of impeachment and was succeeded by [[Gerald R. Ford]], who kept Nixon's policies. The US was not involved in 1975 when North Vietnam invaded and defeated South Vietnam, except to rescue Americans and some Vietnamese supporters. Over a million Vietnamese refugees, and many Hmong from Cambodia, eventually came to the U.S.
| title = Officers With PhDs Advising War Effort
| first = [[Thomas Ricks]]
| journal = Washington Post  | date = February 5, 2007
| url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/04/AR2007020401196.html}}</ref>


In 1976 Ford was challenged by [[Ronald Reagan]] for the GOP nomination. Ford won, but the détente policy was the focus of Reagan's attacks, as the GOP moved to the right. [[Jimmy Carter]] continued the détente policy until the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979 destroyed that policy and reopened the [[Cold War]] at a more intense level.
[[Andrew Bacevich]] is a critic of what he regards as an overemphasis on [[counterinsurgency]] in the U.S. military, which he sees as a revisionist belief that the [[Vietnam War]] could have been won with the right long-term approach, which he terms that of the "Crusaders" for the new view. He sees a more appropriate lesson as the "Conservative" one from the [[Weinberger-Powell Doctrine]]. <ref name=Atlantic2008-10>{{citation
 
| date = October 2008 | journal = Atlantic
 
| title = The Petraeus Doctrine: Iraq-style counterinsurgency is fast becoming the U.S. Army’s organizing principle. Is our military preparing to fight the next war, or the last one?
==1989 to present==
  | author = [[Andrew Bacevich]]
==See also ==
| url = http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200810/petraeus-doctrine}}</ref> He favors a "defensive strategy" of "containment." <ref name=Nation>{{citation
* [[Diplomacy, U.S., Timeline]]
|url = http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/350252/obama_s_limits_an_interview_with_andrew_bacevich
 
| title = Obama's Limits: An Interview With Andrew Bacevich | journal = [[The Nation (magazine)]]
* [[9-11 Attack]]
| author = Jon Wiener | date = 28 August 2008}}</ref> Colonel [[Gian Gentile]] is concerned with a decline in conventional military forces, although Gentile recognizes the conventional enemy is not the mass of the Soviet Union.
* [[Afghanistan War (1978-92)]]
==References==
* [[American Revolution]], 1775-1783
{{reflist|2}}
* [[Berlin Wall]], 1961-89
* [[Central Intelligence Agency]]
* [[Cold War]], 1947-89
* [[Confederate States of America]]
* [[Containment]]
* [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], 1962
* [[Detente]]
* [[Diplomacy, U.S., Timeline]]
* [[Eisenhower Doctrine]], 1957
* [[Embargo of 1807]]
* [[Fourteen Points]], 1918
* [[Gulf War]], 1990-91
* [[Iraq War]], 2003+
* [[Isolationism]]
* [[Jay Treaty]], 1794
* [[Korean War]], 1950-53
* [[Lend Lease]], 1941-45
* [[List of scholarly journals in international relations]]
* [[Louisiana Purchase]], 1803
* [[Manifest Destiny]]
* [[Marshall Plan]], 1848-51
* [[McNary-Haugen Bill]], 1920s; (never passed)
* [[Mexican-American War]], 1846-48
* [[Monroe Doctrine]], 1823+
* [[NATO]], 1949+
* [[NSC-68]], 1950
* [[Quasi-War]], 1798-1800
* [[Reagan Doctrine]]
* [[Rollback]]
* [[Roosevelt Corollary]], 1904
* [[Spanish American War]], 1898
* [[Tariff, U.S. history]]
* [[U.S. Civil War]]
* [[United States State Department]]
* [[Versailles Treaty]], 1919
* [[Vietnam War]], 1965-73
* [[War of 1812]], 1812-15
** [[War of 1812, Causes]]
* [[Wilsonianism]], 1914+
* [[World War I]], 1917-18
* [[World War II]], 1941-45
* [[Zimmerman Telegram]], 1917
===See also leaders===
* [[Dean Acheson]]
* [[Jane Addams]]
* [[John Adams]]
* [[John Quincy Adams]]
* [[Charles A. Beard]]
* [[James G. Blaine]]
* [[John C. Calhoun]]
* [[Jimmy Carter]]
* [[Henry Clay]]
* [[Jesse Helms]]
* [[Herbert Hoover]]
* [[Harry Hopkins]]
* [[Edward M. House]]
* [[Thomas Jefferson]]
* [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]
* [[John F. Kennedy]]
* [[George Kennan]]
* [[Henry Kissinger]]
* [[James Monroe]]
* [[Richard Nixon]]
* [[James K. Polk]]
* [[Ronald Reagan]]
* [[Eleanor Roosevelt]]
* [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]
* [[Theodore Roosevelt]]
* [[Josiah Strong]]
* [[Harry S. Truman]]
* [[Daniel Webster]]
* [[Wendell Willkie]]
* [[Woodrow Wilson]]
 
 
==Bibliography==
* Ambrose, Stephen E. ''Rise to Globalism,'' (1988), since 1945
* Bailey, Thomas A.  ''Diplomatic History of the American People'' (1940), standard older textbook
* Beisner, Robert L. ed, ''American Foreign Relations since 1600: A Guide to the Literature'' (2003), 2 vol. 16,300 annotated entries evaluate every major book and scholarly article.
* Bemis, Samuel Flagg. ''A Diplomatic History of the United States'' (1952) old standard textbook
* Bemis, Samuel Flagg,  and Grace Gardner Griffin. ''Guide to the Diplomatic History of the United States 1775-1921'' (1935) bibliographies
* Brune, Lester H. ''Chronological History of U.S. Foreign Relations'' (2003), 1400 pages
* Burns, Richard Dean, ed. ''Guide to American Foreign Relations since 1700'' (1983) highly detailed annotated bibliography
* DeConde, Alexander, Richard Dean Burns, Fredrik Logevall, and Louise B. Ketz, eds. ''Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy'' 3 vol (2001), 2200 pages; 120 long articles by specialists.
* DeConde, Alexander. ''A History of American Foreign Policy'' (1963) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=65362550 online edition]
* Dobson, Alan P., and Steve Marsh. ''U.S. Foreign Policy since 1945.'' 160pp (2001) [http://www.questia.com/read/102241692?title=U.S.%20Foreign%20Policy%20since%201945 online edition]
* Findling, John E. ed. ''Dictionary of American Diplomatic History'' 2nd ed. 1989. 700pp; 1200 short articles.
* Flanders, Stephen A, and Carl N. Flanders. ''Dictionary of American Foreign Affairs'' (1993) 835 pp, short articles
* Hogan, Michael J. ed. ''Paths to Power: The Historiography of American Foreign Relations to 1941'' (2000) essays on main topics
* Hogan, Michael J. and Thomas G. Paterson, eds. ''Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations'' (1991) essays on historiography
* Jentleson, B.W. and Thomas G. Paterson, eds. ''Encyclopaedia of U.S. Foreign Relations,'' (4 vols., 1997)
* Lafeber, Walter. '' The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad, 1750 to Present'' (2nd ed 1994) textbook; 884pp [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98818311 online edition]
* Paterson, Thomas G. et al. ''American Foreign Relations'' (4th ed. 1995), recent textbook
* Scott, James A. ''After the End: Making U.S. Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War World.'' (1998) 434pp [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&docId=29132551 online edition]
==Online resources==
* [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030-8684(200311)72%3A4%3C495%3ABATCCT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I ''Foreign Relations of the United States'' (FRUS), 1861-1960, 372 volumes complete text. This  series is the official documentary historical record of U.S. foreign policy decisions]
 
 
====notes====
<references/>
 
[[Category:History Workgroup]]
[[Category:Politics Workgroup]]
[[Category:CZ Live]]

Revision as of 08:34, 21 March 2024

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See also: History of U.S. foreign policy

Ultimate responsibility for United States foreign policy rests with the President of the United States of America. For the ratification of formal treaties, he or she must obtain the advice and consent of the Senate.

In the modern practice of foreign policy, formally, the senior foreign policy official below the President is the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. In practice, the critical decisionmakers are the members of the National Security Council, which includes the Secretary of State. Other major influencers are in the National Security Council staff, headed by the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, James Jones. The U.S. Department of Defense, under Secretary Robert Gates, obviously has a major effect, as does the United States intelligence community, coordinated by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair.

Foreign policy formulation and execution is structured on regional and functional areas. Over recent years, there has been an attempt to reconcile the regional definitions of the various departments and agencies, so a country is not under one bureau of the State Department but under a different Unified Combatant Command in the military. This is not completely successful; the countries of the Mediterranean littoral as well as the Levant are under one Assistant Secretary of State, but the United States European Command is responsible for the former but the United States Central Command for the latter.

Foreign policy also needs to be considered in relation to the U.S. and world situation of the time.

Regional

Africa

U.S African policy is principally focused on the Subsaharan part of the continent. For reasons of colonial sensitivity, the United States Africa Command is considered a unified subcommand of United States European Command.

Europe and Eurasia

East Asia and Pacific

North Korea is the hot spot, and the U.S. regional priority is to insist on the Six-Party Talks, which also recognize China as a key broker.

Near East

For more information, see: U.S. policy towards the Middle East.

More than in most areas in the world, policies twist and turn and involve multiple countries. Nevertheless, there are some basic principles both for the region and for countries.

Egypt

While the U.S. continues to provide major economic support to Egypt, there is increasing concern about succession, with President Hosni Mubarrak reported to be in poor health.

Iran

For more information, see: U.S. policy towards Iran.

The Obama administration avoids the military threats implied by the previous administration, by the U.S. or others. While it is giving moral encouragement to the domestic protesters following the 2009 election, it is taking time, establishing a moral position, and waiting on events. It does appear to be holding back on direct engagement at any high level.

It is quite serious about pressuring Iran to stop what is seen as a nuclear weapons program, b as the best means to accomplish this goal. Instead, a consensus is growing, with allies, to use economic warfare, targeted at Iran's lack of internal petroleum refining capacity, and thus, while ironically an oil producer, a gasoline importer. [1]

Iraq

For more information, see: U.S. policy towards Iraq.
See also: Iraq War

Israel

Lebanon

Syria

South and Central Asia

Afghanistan and Pakistan

For more information, see: U.S. policy towards Afghanistan.
For more information, see: U.S. policy towards Pakistan.

In many respects, it sees this as one problem; the political geography of the area also supports the argument that the Durand Line border between the two may have been convenient for the British, but does not reflect the boundaries of the Pashtun people.

Western Hemisphere Affairs

Functional

A number of these areas will definitely involve more agencies than the Department of State.

  • International Organization Affairs (IO)

Security

Economic

Democracy promotion and information

Cultural

  • Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA)

Law enforcement, including drug trade

Human Rights

  • Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM)
  • Global Women's Issues (S/GWI)

Science

Doctrines

Nuclear deterrence

Counterinsurgency

See also: Vietnam, war, and the United States of America

While the U.S. had dealt with insurgencies well before World War II, the situation increased significantly in the Cold War. The 1940 U.S. Marine Corps Manual for Small Wars remains a reference based on experience in Latin America and elsewhere.

In Vietnam, which combined both insurgency and proxy war, the U.S. struggled to find an effective counterinsurgency strategy, eventually refocused on conventional military action, and left the country, which was overthrown by a conventional invasion.

Counterinsurgency (COIN) is alive and well in Afghanistan and Iraq, and there is a distinct split among soldier-statesmen as to the correct balance among counterterrorism, "conventional" military forces, and counterinsurgency to include nation-building. Among the best-known counterinsurgents are General David Petraeus. Petraeus' doctoral dissertation dealt with U.S. policy toward Vietnam, [2] a far more active role, than traditional for generals, in developing the Army doctrinal manual on counterinsurgency. [3]

Sometimes informally called the "COINdanistas", this is an influential school of thought that blends political, social and military strategies. The Center for a New American Security, a strategic think tank, has many of its principals in the Obama Administration. Petraeus, now the U.S. commander for the Middle East, has used advisers including David Kilcullen and H.R. McMaster, known for open criticism of policies, even while advising. [4]

Andrew Bacevich is a critic of what he regards as an overemphasis on counterinsurgency in the U.S. military, which he sees as a revisionist belief that the Vietnam War could have been won with the right long-term approach, which he terms that of the "Crusaders" for the new view. He sees a more appropriate lesson as the "Conservative" one from the Weinberger-Powell Doctrine. [5] He favors a "defensive strategy" of "containment." [6] Colonel Gian Gentile is concerned with a decline in conventional military forces, although Gentile recognizes the conventional enemy is not the mass of the Soviet Union.

References

  1. ↑ "Obama considers Iran gas cut-off", United Press International, 3 August 2009
  2. ↑ The American Military and the Lessons of Vietnam: A study of military influence and the use of force in the post-Vietnam era, doctoral dissertation, Princeton University, 1987
  3. ↑ John Nagl, David Petraeus, James Amos, Sarah Sewall (December 2006), Field Manual 3-24: Counterinsurgency, US Department of the Army
  4. ↑ "Officers With PhDs Advising War Effort", Washington Post, February 5, 2007
  5. ↑ Andrew Bacevich (October 2008), "The Petraeus Doctrine: Iraq-style counterinsurgency is fast becoming the U.S. Army’s organizing principle. Is our military preparing to fight the next war, or the last one?", Atlantic
  6. ↑ Jon Wiener (28 August 2008), "Obama's Limits: An Interview With Andrew Bacevich", The Nation (magazine)
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