Global Issues - Powell Doctrine - Essay Example

As per the film, Gandhi had brought his own set of values to the far-off region of South Africa and had practiced them in his legal profession. He advocated nonviolence and motivated the native Africans to fight against British injustices through nonviolent agitations. Ferguson believes that liberal imperialism can be a good thing primarily because it provides countries to expand their business across the regions and thereby establish more effective economic supremacy over the nations (Ferguson, 2004).

Answer 3

Terrorism is an act of violence and intimidation against innocent people to meet the vested political goals and religious fanatics’ demands, committed by terrorists. They have no morals and infiltrate society by luring the weak and the vulnerable common man who is then used as a medium to commit heinous crimes. That is the reason that terrorist outfits like Al Qaeda are difficult to combat.

Answer 4

Powell Doctrine defines the defense strategy and states that military power should be used as the last resort and all resources and tools should be used in the war to conquer the enemy (Healy, 2003). It encourages nations to employ diplomacy and negotiation techniques to avert war and therefore, significantly restricts the imperialistic tendencies of America.

Answer 5

The United States has increased significant influence in world polity not only because of its military power but also as the biggest, richest, scientifically most advanced, and economically established nation in the world (Johnson, 2004). Ferguson and Johnson have reiterated that in recent times, America has been sidetracked from its public welfare policies to the use of military power to declare its military supremacy and domination over weak nations. Zakaria has also compared US influence to that of the British Empire and has emphasized that the British empire disintegrated because of a lack of effective economic policies and though America’s considerable influence across the globe can be termed as America’s economic empire, it is also threatened by vested interests and ‘political dysfunction’. If America is to maintain its status, it needs to evolve with time and meet the challenges of emerging new economies and political dynamics with a new vision and liberal outlook (Zakaria, 2008).

Answer 6
Johnson’s ‘Four Sorrows of Empire’ is a powerful book that categorically condemns the defense and foreign policy of America. According to him, in the last few decades, America has increasingly resorted to military power to establish its military supremacy. The post cold war scenario had made the United States more powerful and wilful. The American war against Vietnam which dragged on for more than 15 years is a classic example of American autocracy in the international arena.

After 30 thirty years, it repeated the same folly with the Iraq war bringing untold miseries to the respective nations. It also destroyed and demoralized the American army while lowering its credibility in the eyes of the world. Both wars were a declaration of America as a superpower and symbolic of its bullying tendency. The author has emphatically declared that wars had just served the purpose of satisfying the vested interests of the few people and emptied the state coiffeurs with total disregard for the general welfare of its people. Read More