In what ways do America's ideals affect the nation's foreign policies? Should American foreign policy be guided by ideals or determined by national interests?

Answer 1

Hi Amanda!

This is a very important question. Here is an example to point you in the right direction:

One American ideal in foreign policy that has influenced other countries is the idea of the expansion of democracy by supporting a transition into a more democratic regime, which includes the support of protection human rights, freedom of speech, and many others. This concept is called Democratization. The U.S. has created multiple organizations (public, private, and nonprofit) to operate in promoting democratic principles (example: USAID, U.S. Institute for Peace, Human Rights Watch).

There are two examples of this concept. First, and most well-known, is based on the Democratic Peace Theory that supports the idea that, historically, a democratic country has never gone to war with another democratic country. In other words, the more democracies, the higher chance of peace around the world. This became the primary weapon of the U.S. against the Soviet Union after containment policies (stop communism from spreading) of President Truman. During that time, the idea of democracy in foreign policy could be considered a national security interest. Other nations, like the U.K., and other NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) countries adopted this American-style foreign policy approach as their own. The second example is the War on Terror. Studies show that unemployment, lack of education, authoritarianism, extremism, and many other factors fuel the increase in terrorism. If the U.S. was able to make authoritarian-prone governments more democratic, then this could decrease terrorism - help the war on terror. The concept of Nation-Building, published by James Dobbins, a senior fellow of a think tank called RAND Corporation, addresses rebuilding war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq to make it more democratic as a counterinsurgency tool. Countries, like the U.K., France, Germany, and others, also adopted and supported post-conflict nation-building as a policy that they support. Overall, if spreading democracy leads to a higher chance of peace by reducing terrorism and promoting market economies, then yes, U.S. foreign policy should be guided by both the American ideal and national security interest of democracy.

I hope that these two examples helps you understand the topic and points you in the right direction. Let me know if you need further assistance and I will be more than happy to help!

Here are some sources that can help you further understand the topic.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG557.html

https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756223/obo-9780199756223-0014.xml

https://www.cfr.org/project/democracy-human-rights-and-american-foreign-policy

https://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-361

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://people.tamu.edu/~quanli/papers/JCR_2005_terrorism.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiXkN2X7dXpAhViT98KHQOiDzsQFjAPegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw0Ep1cTO3UgZ-ZbBvdvBgku&cshid=1590644696413