Major Objectives of United States Foreign and Defense Policy

The United States foreign and defense policy enables the nation to interact with other foreign nations. The United States being the only remaining powerful nation after the cold war has a highly influential foreign policy in international affairs. The major goals of the United States foreign policy are to ensure that the world is more secure, democratic, and prosperous for the benefit of the American people and the global population. This paper explains four major objectives of the United States foreign and defense policies and the mechanisms the United States government employs in pursuing those objectives. These four major U.S foreign and defense policy objectives include; democracy, manifest destiny, humanitarianism, and economic expansion.

The American government views democracy as the classic liberal tradition which guarantees people the right to determine their government. The United States of America was founded under the foundation built on democratic principles. Democracy constitutes one of the major national security objectives promoted by the United States foreign and defense policies internationally. Over long periods, the promotion of democracy has remained a key element of United States foreign policy. However, in recent years, it has been reduced to a primary element. For instance, the efforts to promote freedom and democracy around the world particularly in Iraq during President Bush’s Administration have been interpreted to be a weapon to end tyranny and fight against terror. The efforts are interpreted as a way to enhance stability in volatile regions, and also as a mechanism to raise prosperity in poor regions. To achieve this objective, United States provides democratic assistance to many nations in a variety of circumstances. Democracy objective provides the U.S government with transformational diplomacy designed to respond to the needs of the American people and conduct its affairs responsibly in the international arena.

The United States foreign and defense policy also operates under the Major objective of manifest destiny, which refers to the responsibility to strive to live in social harmony. It may also refer to the belief that the United States’ determination to show all how on better ways of living in mutual striving and social harmony. There is an embedded ideology in America that America is “a nation chosen by God” which is a concept that manifests destiny. Therefore, the American foreign and defense policy is informed by the belief that America has been elected by God for a special destiny internationally. This concept receives a lot of support among American Protestants for such a notion of the role of America as a world leader. Therefore, American foreign policy is informed with a clear moral purpose. This moral purpose depends on the concurrence that the nation’s moral goals and its fundamental interests are always incongruent. To pursue this objective the U.S government’s foreign policy seeks to expand liberty that constantly grows to reach further and include more.

The third major objective of U.S foreign and defense policy is humanitarianism. This is an aspect described in the United States as the doctrine of ethics and humility directed to the welfare of people internationally. Through the United States foreign aid regime, the U.S provides centralized management and accountability over USAID and state department funds to assist in the humanitarian assistance abroad.

Last but not least, the American foreign and defense policy is dictated by the objective of economic expansion. Economic expansion refers to the efforts of the United States to increase its markets abroad, which in turn guarantees employment for the American middle class. In pursuance of this objective, the U.S government uses economic sanctions as a weapon in its foreign and defense policy. The government uses economic expansion tendency intending to advance human rights, fighting terrorism, and deterring weapons proliferation.

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