The United States Political and Economic Policies Abroad - Research Paper Example

?The United s’ Political and Economic Policies Abroad Since the end of the Second World War1, between 1939- 1945, the United s of America has been working tirelessly to expand her territories abroad being the world’s super power. Emerging from the war as the strongest nation in the world in terms of war, the US has been much concerned with the need to build up her capacity as the world’s controller. This she realized has to be achieved by ensuring that her economic advancements are kept at a higher level as compared to that of the other nations of the world. Upon this realization, the United States has been involved in the establishment and the growth of her economy to supersede that of the entire world. To date, we consider the US as the strongest economic power on the global sphere as well as the strongest nation in the entire world in terms of wars. She has the most sophisticated machinery and military personnel’s than any other country in the world. She has as well the strongest army in the world. Above all, the economy of America has overtaken any economy in the entire world at present. The world’s economic base is pegged on the dollar monopoly whereby the US dollar is used as the world’s medium of exchange and for business transactions across the entire globe. It is only the United States currency which has been accepted as the medium of exchange for all international business transactions and not the other currencies. Even though the European pound is also used for international business transactions, it is the US dollar which dominates the global market. The European pound has only been used to a limited scale especially among the nations making up the European Union and a few of her colonies. Heo and Karl (2004) argue that the stability of the United States monopoly of the world has however been threatened by some other rising world economies (Heo and Karl 2004). These other small economies which have been rising to keep at purr with the US economy include that of Japan and China. These economies however have not reached the levels of being able to control the world economy as the United States has managed. There is power in the extent or the area of land and the total population commanded by a state to be considered powerful. The small economies mentioned above have not been able to make it to the global sphere because of their small land sizes as well as their small populations. In terms of military specialization and war dominations, the world has been looking forward to the development of nuclear weapons for purposes of war. Many nations considered to be among the strongest nations in the world have developed very technical and sophisticated war machines. Wang has listed some of these such as South Korea among others. These countries have as well developed very lethal nuclear weapons which have been considered a major source of threat to the entire world (Wang 1999). As a result there have been rumors of wars as well as some other wars fought between various nations of the world. The rumors of wars are what the political analysts and war experts refer to as the cold war and begun some years ago. In order to maintain the economic, political and military power, the united states knows very well that she has to employ certain techniques to enable her survive in her position. This paper will investigate how the United States of America has been using her political, economic and diplomatic mechanisms in her foreign policies to rue the entire world and to establish herself as the world’s super power. 2 The monopoly of the US economy and military power has been threatened by some countries today forcing the US to revise her stand on how she controls and rule the world. Some of the states which have posed threats to US of late include Iran, Syria among others (Kegley 1998). These are mostly the Arab nations. These countries have made America to realize the need to strengthen her missions abroad and change the overall process of monitoring the world’s progress and development. Various policies governing the operations of various countries have been sanctioned by the United States to monitor the way certain states carry out their activities. As the controller of the global military wing, the United States has invented policies governing the way all nations of the earth establish their military operations. There has been a rule enacted on nuclear development and the making of nuclear weapons among various states in the world today. It is with the mandate of keeping the world peace that the United States is concerned about the way all nations of the earth handle and manage their nuclear weapons. Meemik notes that any country today which has some interest in making nuclear weapons must sign an international agreement which prevents her from using these weapons for any destructive mission on any other nation around the globe. Nuclear weapons are known to cause mass destructions and widespread loss of lives as compared to the other formally known weapons of war ( Meernik1996). Countries such as Iran, Syria, South Korea and North Korea are among the various nations which have exploited their nuclear capacity and posed dangers to the entire world. The United States, as the world’s premium peace keeper, has therefore ensured that these deadly weapons are not used to cause harm to anyone. The policies on the possessions of nuclear weapons and nuclear products handling is therefore being monitored very closely by the united states to ensure that these weapons are used in the best way possible. Peceny argues that other than the production of nuclear energy, no nation over the surface of the earth has been permitted to use nuclear products to make these weapons as some countries mentioned above have done (Peceny 1999). It is illegal for these countries to posses’ nuclear weapons for the fear that they can be used to cause harm to other people and on other nations. Various sanctions have been put on various nations found to be making and possessing such weapons by the United States of America. This as she claims is aimed at protecting the world population according to her mandates on the global sphere. Countries like Iran which began their nuclear processing mechanisms under the full support of the American government have become one of the best enemies of America at present. This has stemmed from the move by the Iranian government to make nuclear weapons contrary to the former agreement signed. Despite all these sanctions and strict monitoring techniques employed by the American government on the countries making nuclear weapons, it is ironical the America herself has nuclear weapons to which no sanctions have been issued (Regan 1995). A pertinent question which one may wan to ask therefore is whether it is wrong for any country to arm herself in the best way possible other than America. If at all nuclear weapons are bad and the United States knows this, then she should desist from making them herself. If sanctions have to be issued on any country which makes nuclear weapons to arm herself the way she feels is good and appropriate, then America should be the first country to receive such sanctions and stop making the nuclear weapons as an example to the entire globe. The American policies on the foreign spheres are exercised in an unfair manner favoring the strong nations and close allies to the United States. On the other hand, those that are not close allies with them are issued with strong warnings to threaten and discourage them from arming themselves with the best weapons. According to Knack, American government is seen to be using these policies to bar the other nations from making war weapons while at the same time; they are majoring in making these prohibited weapons and arming themselves with the most dangerous weapons which they consider unsuitable for war (Knack 2004). In this way the American policies in the foreign countries can be seen as those that bar the other countries from reaching the levels America has reached in terms of war and military techniques. Being the most powerful state in the world, America has also been seen trying to control the world politics. She plants any leader in any country as she is pleased and any nation which does not adhere to her rules and abide by the requirements she has issued is often fought to the ground. This has been seen in various instances. An example of such a case is seen when the US government fought countries such as Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan and other Arab nations. Today the United States is brushing shoulders with countries such as Iran, Syria and South Korea for reasons related to war embedded on political reasons. It is the American politics that determines the world politics in the present scene. There is a majority agreement that no political leader on earth today can oppose America and no politician or any other government leader can stand without the support of America (Bruce and Downes 2006). As we can say today, it is who American government wants to head which country that does so. Let us take for example the case of Iraq and Afghanistan, the neighbors of Iran who is now in constant power struggle with the US. When the United States realized that they needed to change the leadership of Iraq because the then head of Iraqi state, President Sadam Hussein was not listening to them, they devised method of ensuring that they have toppled off Sadam from leadership. Iraq was accused of making weapons of mass destruction and an investigation was launched to find out this. The investigations however, intensified and the government of the United States embarked on making stronger push on Iraq. War was then launched on Sadam Hussein and his allied veterans’ or rather military allies. At the end of the war, Sadam was overthrown and a new government was planted by the United States. When enquiries were later on done, it was found that the Iraqi government had actually not made any mass destruction weapon. President Sadam Hussein could therefore be said to have been killed for no good reasons since he was not involved in making any of these weapons as the American government had insisted before. This is what America does for any government in any country that would not listen to her. The same happened in the case of Afghanistan and other Muslim nations such as Egypt and Libya (Pickering 2006). In this way, America has succeeded in manning and controlling the world politics to such an extent that the whole world has pegged their political ambitions on American politics. At present the same political accusations are being used against Iran and Syria with an aim of causing political assassinations to the rulers of these countries. The main reasons for these political assassinations and black mails are often pegged on the misunderstanding between the American government and these rulers. Any government leaders in the world who would not listen and dance to the American politics and hearken to her voice will end up being overthrown for certain development allegations. In this way therefore, the American government is slowly and surely succeeding in controlling the world politics by enacting policies regarding political protectorates. Iran has been accused of making nuclear weapons which are prohibited by the nuclear policies monitored by the American government on the world populations. Besides, the Iranian leadership has been accused of mass human rights abuse. These rights are as well closely and strictly monitored by the American government to ensue that all nations of the earth have abided by them. It is with the main goal of creating a field for political assassination of Iranian government that all these accusations have arisen since the Iranian government has not been in good terms with the American government for some time over the making of nuclear weapons (Carothers 2000). In essence, it is what America wants to do in almost all nations of the world that always prevail. She determines and directs the political scenarios of all nations of the earth. It is however interesting to note the kind of tie the American politics has on her economic development in the entire world. The American economic mainstream is located in the Middle East where she gets her oils used for industrial operations and in other sectors of her economy. This has often led to the tremendous interest America has on the Middle East and other related countries which are considered to be producing much oil and petroleum products for the world markets. For this reason the American government has invested a lot of interest on the politics of the Middle East and has continued to dictate who controls which country in the region so that she continues getting what she wants from these regions. Failure to comply with these policies always leads to the overthrowing of the resisting governments in these regions Moreover, being the world’s largest and most stable economy, the United States has been on the fore front in dictating the means of production as well as the methods of production for all nations of the earth. The trends of production in various countries of the world are being very closely monitored by the US government based on some economic policies. All countries of the world contribute to the overall building and construction of the super economy, the American economy, in one way or the other. It is the United States which controls and mans the global markets and designs the standards of goods which have to be produced by other countries. Failure to meet these standards always results into the rejection of goods from one country by all nations of the earth depending on the policy issues built by America ( Meernik 1996). To the surprise of the entire world, no country has ever bothered to care if the products from America actually meet their standards. The American government doesn’t even care if what she produces meets the world standards as long as the world’s production trends meet her standards. With the biggest economy in the world the United States enjoys the monopoly of the world’s largest economy. She enacts economic policies which are deemed right to her and ensures that these policies are actually complied with by the global governments. On the other hand, the world economies are depended on the American economy to an extent that when the economy of America is interfered with; the entire economy of the world is at stake. This issue is analyzed by Kegley when analyzing the state of the United States policies on the elimination of the Iranian nuclear issues. He says: “Military strikes are likely to cause a disruption in the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf and price increases. With the fragile state of the U.S. economy and other economies worldwide, and our dependence on oil from this region, these changes would likely delay or derail our economic recovery or even spark another global economic crisis.” (Kegley 1998) This indicates the extent to which the US economy controls the global economies hence the ease with which she is able to enact and implement the world economic policies. The United States has in her policy that any nation of the earth which does not actually comply with her demands has to be eliminated and bared from trading with the rest of the world. This is reciprocated to the common ancient siege which was used by the ancient colonies and empires to overcome other empires in war with them. By issuing a sanction on trade products from one country, the sanctioned country cannot survive and thus has to give in and comply. An example of such a sanction is that on Iran. A Tanzanian ship had been found ferrying Iranian oil for export at the time when America was in cold war with Iran. As a result of this, the Tanzanian government was forced to recant having any linkage with the Iranian government and not to trade with Iran on her oil. It can be seen from this dimension that the US policies are often undertaken with a lot of authority on the nations of the world. These sanctions have helped the United States to maintain a dogmatic kind of rule on the global populations. I do not actually understand how a misunderstanding between America and Iran should affect Tanzania and prevent her from trading with Iran In areas where she feels the use of war would be impossible or just too dangerous for instance in the case of Iran and the nuclear weapons manufacturing, the United States has in most cases preceded violence with diplomatic interventions. With regard to diplomacy, the United States has ventured into using various local and international diplomats to settle certain disputes by either negotiations or by signing treaties with these countries so as the reach and agreement (Knack 2004). One of the proposals for offering an all encompassing and effective means of offering solutions to the Iranian case was the use of diplomacy. This was due to the act that the Iranian president had always protected Iran’s need to make nuclear weapons not for bad intentions but for good ones. The leader maintained that the country would make the weapons for self defense incase of any attack but assured the entire world that the weapons will not be used to evoke war with another country save for when attacked. It is for this insistence that the United States as the world peace keeper has decided to review her approach on the elimination of the Iranian nuclear weapons. A statement by Regan analyzing these approaches records: “A military intervention will not stop Iran from trying to acquire nuclear weapons. In fact, the very threat of military intervention makes Iran more likely to try to acquire them. Eliminating all of Iran’s nuclear sites, some of which are underground, will be very difficult, if not impossible. We also risk harming Iranian civilians in the process.” (Regan 1995) Several diplomatic missions have been conducted by the US head of state Hilary Clinton as well as other diplomats who have been involved in such mission. These are aimed at striking a balance between the US and the countries in question. Wherever an agreement is reached between the two countries in question, war is ceased and the contrary is the same. Besides, the US has established embassies in almost all parts of the world where diplomatic missions are always carried out between her and the countries in question. While diplomacy has worked out in some cases, it has not prevailed in some instances and as a result, war has been the resorted for mode of solution to these problems. This was the case with Iraq, Afghanistan and such related countries with which the United States has gone to war. To date, the United States of America can be singled out as the worst violator of some very important policies yet they strengthen the need for the observance of these policies in the foreign countries. Some of these policies include those regarding environmental management and pollution control. It is true that such policies as concerns environmental management and protection are made by the international community through the United Nations Environmental Program and endorsed by the member states. The US is however the overall overseer of all these operations and is mandated to ensure that these global policies are observed by the global populations and that every country of the world complies with these policies (Wang 1999). More as they may seem to be the global or UN policies, these are actually generated by the United States and monitored by them. Despite the policies put on the environmental protection and monitoring, the US has contributed so much in the pollution of the global environment and has not cared the impact on the global populations. The united states is today the most prospective polluter of the environment with her many industrial developments across the globe. This is in contrary to the internationally agreed upon demands that were made in 1992 during the earth summit in Rio de Jenairo, Brazil, concerning environmental protection and sustainable development. An example of such violations is the oil spill on the Pacific Ocean by the American oil transportation ships which caused mass aquatic destruction and large scale interference with the aquatic biodiversity. Conclusion In conclusion, I would like to reiterate here that the United States has been so much concerned with the implementation of several policies both at the local and at the international levels. These policies are the main driving forces for the operations of the entire world. However, these policies are implemented in a dogmatic way which portrays a dictatorship kind of ruling on the global populations. Having the largest economy in the world, the United States’ economic policies are the dominating policies which control the global economies as well. The political influence of the US is as well a determinant of the global politics. References Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and George Downes. "“Intervention and Democracy,” International Organization." 60 (July 2006): 627- 649. 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