The United States and the world

Foreign Policy: The plan a country follows for interacting with other

countries.Foreign Policy Goals: maintaining

national security, supporting democracy, promoting world

peace, and providing aid to people in need.

Both the president and Congress play roles in conducting foreign policy.

President’s PowersArticle II Section 2 of Constitution

gives president foreign policy powers.

President’s PowersMilitary Powers: The president can order the military into action, but

only congress can declare war.Treaty Making Powers: With advice

and consent of senate, president can make 3 types of treaties: Peace

treaties, alliance treaties, and commercial treaties.

Peace treaties: agreements to end wars.

Alliance treaties: when two or more countries agree to help each other for defense, economic, scientific, or other

reasons.Commercial treaties: economic

agreements between two or more countries to trade with each other.

(Senate must approve by a 2/3 vote)

More Presidential PowersThe president can also make executive

agreements, which are mutual understandings between him and the

leader of a foreign government.They also have the power of diplomatic

recognition which is the power to recognize or establish official relations with another

country by exchanging ambassadors.

Congress has powers too!Like:

1. The power to declare war.2. The senate must approve all

treaties3. Congress must approve all funding

for national defense (so policies cannot be carried out if congress

does not vote for the money to be spent)

CONFLICTS

The foreign Policy of the U.S. used to be one of isolationism, meaning that it tried to avoid involvement in

all foreign affairs.

Monroe Doctrine

1823-President James Monroe declared that the U.S. would consider any European meddling in the affairs of any country in the Western Hemisphere as unfriendly.

WORLD WAR I

In 1915 German submarines sunk a U.S. Merchant ship named Lusitania.

In 1917, Congress declared war on Germany.

WORLD WAR II

On December 7, 1941 Japanese planes attacked Americans at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, the U.S. entered WWII.

AFTER WORLD WAR II, THE U.S. JOINED THE UNITED NATIONS ( We

will talk more about that organization later)

THE COLD WAR

After WWII, Russia and the U.S. remained as the world’s strongest nations. Russia became the USSR

when communists staged a revolution and their growing

influence was seen as a threat to world peace. This begins the Cold

War.

In 1947, President Truman announced the Truman Doctrine which was called the “policy of

containment” = sending economic aid to countries fighting

communism.

Communism also found a home in Cuba, where there was a

revolution in from 1949-1959.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Soviet Union set up missile bases in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy showed tremendous

military strength, and the soviet union backed down and removed

its missiles from Cuba.

In 1950, Communist North Korea invaded noncommunist South

Korea. The U.S. government called on the United Nations to stop the

invasion. The U.S. and 15 other members of the U.N. helped

defend South Korea. In 1953, They hit a stalemate and they remain

separated today.

Vietnam War

Another country the U.S. feared may become communist. It began by sending economic and military

aid, and turned into a war with over 540,000 troops by 1969.

Modern American Foreign Policy

In the wake of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade

Center the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan in hopes of fighting Al-

Qaeda and finding Osama Bin Laden.

A couple years later, in 2003 the U.S. went to war in Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein for supposedly

having weapons of mass destruction.

ORGANIZATIONS

NAT0

The North American Treaty Organization.

Most western countries are part of it. Meant to keep global peace.

EUROPEAN UNION (EU)

Alliance of 25 and growing European countries who share the

same currency, the euro.

Goals: Free movement of goods, labor, and capital(money)

NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)

Agreement between Canada, the Unites States, and Mexico.

Goals: To open up trade between the countries and encourage

economic growth.

WTO (World Trade Organization)

Set up in 1995 to supervise international trade.

IMF (International Monetary Fund)

an agency of the United Nations. Set up to lend money to countries

in need.

UNITED NATIONS

The U.N. is an organization that promotes peaceful coexistence and worldwide

cooperation.

Provides a place where the world’s countries can express their views about problems that

threaten peace.

The U.N. has no armed forces of its own but it does have a world court called the International

Court of Justice.