American Foreign Policy Research Articles

Without Enemy – American Foreign and Security Policy after the Cold War

Without Enemy – American Foreign and Security Policy after the Cold War

The Shift Toward Imperialist Mentality and America’s China Policy:A Study Centered on The Open Door Policy

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American foreign policy underwent a major shift toward expansionism and imperialism. This transformation was not only a natural result of the increase in American power, but also largely influenced by the mentality of national identity, American exceptionalism, cultural superiority, etc. The American images of China, influenced by this shift, had also undergone significant changes. China in the 19th century was seen as a byword for barbarism, but in the early 20th century, Americans began to talk about China’s awakening. A variety of changes in mentality and expansionist policies had turned the national imagination of Americans to imperialism, which was the driving force behind the change in China’s image. The change in China’s image had in turn affected U.S. policy toward China. However, on the other hand, the tradition of Orientalism had led American to regard China as a passive and static entity. China as a nation and Chinese laborers led the United States to view China as a “double other” rather than a free subject of thought or action. This ideology promoted the formation of the consensus of Open Door Policy and Chinese Exclusion.

The Communist International in the perception of American diplomats, 1919–1944

Based on the documents of the US State Department, the position of its leaders and diplomats in relation to the Communist International for the entire period of time from its foundation to its dissolution is reconstructed. A special place is given to the Communist Party of the USA as a section of the Comintern. The activities of the Comintern affected US foreign policy and left an imprint on the views of diplomats (F. Coleman, W. Bullitt, E. Page, Jr.) and strategic ideologists (J. Kennan, Zb. Brzezinski). The experience of the participation of the American diplomatic department in the 1920s – the first half of the 1940s. It is still relevant in countering the "world Communist Party". During this period of history, the United States developed methods to neutralize political opponents (the US Communist Party, and after World War II – the Communist parties of Western Europe and pro-Soviet forces around the world), which are still being used in a modified form by Washington. The purpose of the article is to trace the changes in the position of the US diplomatic corps in relation to the Comintern in 1919–1943. The subject of the study is the assessments, plans and actions of American diplomats used during the formation of U.S. policy towards Soviet Russia/USSR before and during World War II. The conclusions are substantiated: 1) in the 1920s, American diplomats realized the inextricability of ties between Soviet Russia/The USSR and the Comintern, between the Comintern and the Communist Party of the USA, which led to the development of specific ways to counter the Communists by the US government, (repressive, legislative, agent, information and protective); 2) the activities of the Comintern and the Communist Party of the USA in the 1920s and early 1930s complicated relations between Moscow and Washington and encouraged US legislators and diplomats to counter foreign subversive activities; 3) during World War II, the State Department was concerned about the very existence of the Comintern and in February 1943 developed a position according to which important agreements The USSR should have included a provision on the termination of the activities of the Comintern. The results of the study can be used for subsequent studies on the history of Soviet-American relations, the history of the international communist movement. На основе документов Государственного департамента США реконструируется позиция его руководителей и дипломатов в отношении Коммунистического Интернационала за весь период времени от его основания до роспуска. Особое место уделяется Компартии США как секции Коминтерна. Деятельность Коминтерна сказалась на внешней политике США и наложила отпечаток на воззрения дипломатов (Ф. Колеман, У. Буллит, Э. Пейдж-мл.) и стратегов-идеологов (Дж. Кеннан, Зб. Бжезинский). Опыт участия американского дипломатического ведомства в 1920-е – первой половине 1940-х гг. в противодействии «мировой компартии» актуален и поныне. В обозначенный период истории в Соединенных Штатах разрабатывались методы нейтрализации политических противников (Компартии США, а после Второй мировой войны – компартий стран Западной Европы и просоветских сил по всему миру), которые и сейчас в модифицированном виде используются Вашингтоном. Цель статьи: проследить изменения позиции дипломатического корпуса США в отношении Коминтерна в 1919–1943 гг. Предметом исследования являются оценки, планы и действия американских дипломатов, использовавшиеся в ходе формирования политики США по отношению к Советской России/СССР до начала и во время Второй мировой войны. Обоснованы выводы: 1) в 1920-е гг. американские дипломаты осознавали неразрывность связей между Советской Россией/СССР и Коминтерном, между Коминтерном и Компартией США, что вело к выработке специфических способов противодействия коммунистам со стороны правительства США, (репрессивных, законодательных, агентурных, информационных и оградительных); 2) деятельность Коминтерна и Компартии США в 1920-е – начале 1930-х гг. осложняла отношения между Москвой и Вашингтоном и побуждала законодателей и дипломатов США противодействовать иностранной подрывной деятельности; 3) во время Второй мировой войны Госдепартамент был обеспокоен самим фактом существования Коминтерна и в феврале 1943 г. выработал позицию, согласно которой важные соглашения с СССР должны были включать положение о прекращении деятельности Коминтерна. Результаты исследования могут быть привлечены для последующих штудий по истории советско-американских отношений, истории международного коммунистического движения.

Jeffrey Friedman. The Commander-in-Chief Test: Public Opinion and the Politics of Image-Making in US Foreign Policy

Jeffrey Friedman. <i>The Commander-in-Chief Test: Public Opinion and the Politics of Image-Making in US Foreign Policy</i>

“Changing values and the writing of history”: A review of United States Foreign Policy History &amp; Resource Guide, a website, at https://peacehistory‐usfp.org/

“Changing values and the writing of history”: A review of <i>United States Foreign Policy History &amp; Resource Guide</i>, a website, at https://peacehistory‐usfp.org/

Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Impact on Pak-US Relations

Conflict in Afghanistan, either Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or war on terror in post 9/11 period, has deep impact on Pak- US relations. In both the cases Pakistan got the status of the most important state strategically. It played important role as a front-line state to fight against the Soviet Union during Soviet attack of Afghanistan. As a result, America extended economic and military support to Pakistan. After the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, American Foreign policy towards Pakistan was changed; it stopped all kind of economic and military support to Pakistan and imposed sanctions on it. Again, in post 9/11 attacks on American soil, America decided to attack Afghanistan and it needed Pakistan’s logistic support. Pakistan extended the required support and again became an important American ally in operation in Afghanistan. Thus, we may say, that conflict in Afghanistan has deep impact on Pak- US relations.

The United States is a messianic state: rhetorical roots in US foreign policy since 1991

ABSTRACT How do we explain the United States’ interventionist mindset in the international system since 1991? Since the end of the Cold War and the subsequent unipolar moment, America has actively promoted democracy and human rights globally. However, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban’s subsequent takeover prompts us to re-think the ideological roots of interventionism between 1991 and 2021. Scholars have taken two broad positions on how they view America: an empire or a hegemon. In this article, I suggest that two conceptions help explain the US actions and behaviour in the international system but do not explicitly outline the rhetorical roots of the US intentions. Drawing on historical instances of messianic tendencies in the global political structure, this paper argues that a messianic state is a nation-state that assumes the global responsibility of saving societies from an impending threat. As a messianic state, the US has used the discursive logic of saving others by drawing on American exceptionalism and the global vision of democratic peace. The messianic content in American foreign policy matured between 1991 and 2010, but it has been in steep decline since 2015 with the rise of China and American inwardness.

The Transformation of International Relations in East Asia at the End of the XX – Early XXI Centuries

The author examines the role of various institutions and countries in the transformation of the world order in East Asia during the period of the late XX – early XXI centuries. The work notes that at the end of the XX century, the American model of the regionalization process, carried out within the framework of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), dominated. However, due to the changes in the US foreign policy doctrine and the Asian economic crisis of 1997–1998, APEC, in the early 2000s, began to give way to ASEAN+, where Japan occupied the leading position. Since the mid-2000s, China has been strengthening due to successfully carried out economic reforms and the use of various integration platforms. As a result, China began to promote its own model of globalization and regionalization in the region, which challenged the American order not only in East Asia, but also in the Asia-Pacific region. In the late 2000s, Washington sought to regain lost positions in the region by promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership integration project, which intensified the struggle between the leading powers for dominance in the region. As a result, in the 2010s. ASEAN+ and Japan are developing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) project, China is beginning to promote the Belt and Road international cooperation organization. As a result of the transformation of international relations caused by the movement of the world from unipolar to multipolar, there is a change in the transformation of the geopolitical situation in East Asia. The United States returned to the «traditional» methods of confrontation, increasing tension in the region and the world

America's foreign policy after Biden: What can the Indo‐Pacific region expect?

AbstractWhat might the foreign policy of a potential Trump presidency or that of a Harris presidency look like, and what could their respective implications for the Indo‐Pacific be? The likelihood that Trump will revive his “America First” doctrine, including his trade war with China, suggests that the region may be in for another bumpy ride from a “Trump 2.0.” A Harris presidency will likely continue Biden's policy in engaging deeply (but selectively) with the Indo‐Pacific, while “de‐risking” America from China and resisting Chinese efforts to delimit the global commons and deny others access to it. Whether led by Trump or Harris, it is likely that the United States will proactively take on China but in slightly different ways. In either instance, Southeast Asia stands to benefit if the Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries play their cards right, but it will be in terms of their perceived usefulness to America's effort to counter China.

Networks between Ireland and the Irish American Diaspora during the Northern Ireland Peace Process

Abstract This article explores the complex relationship between the network of actors in the United States and Ireland who sought to influence American foreign policy in the Northern Ireland peace process. These networks operated in civil society, representing numerous Irish American organizations linking corporate and church leaders and the media to members of the Irish American diaspora in government to influence the United States’ diplomacy. These Irish American groups and individuals interested in influencing events in Northern Ireland were linked with a wide array of governmental and non-governmental actors in Ireland. Often, Americans were quite deferential to leaders and groups in Ireland and Northern Ireland who sought to mobilize the Irish diaspora in the United States for their cause. Thus, the United States’ role in Ireland and Northern Ireland was not that of a hegemonic power but one of an empathetic actor responding to developments and cues provided by various actors in the Irish context. Transatlantic networking, made more possible due to technological changes in communication and transportation, facilitated increased exchanges of ideas, agents, and information. These networks allowed groups across the Atlantic to elicit support for local groups in Northern Ireland and mobilize the US government to play a political and diplomatic role in the conflict and peace process. Ultimately, the majority of Irish Americans moved from supporting the nationalist/republican side in the early years of the Troubles to becoming strong supporters of the peace process in the 1990s.

Role of sustained democracy in US foreign policy during presidency of Joseph R. Biden

Role of sustained democracy in US foreign policy during presidency of Joseph R. Biden

Foundations, US Foreign Policy and Anti-racism in Brazil: Pushing Racial Democracy

Foundations, US Foreign Policy and Anti-racism in Brazil: Pushing Racial Democracy

The European Response to US Expansion in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

The territorial expansion of the USA in the 1840s represented an important phase on its way to becoming a world power. Historians have paid considerable attention to US foreign policy during this period but have largely neglected the significant impact of US expansion on Europe. Whereas they have written a great deal about European reflections on American democracy or slavery, they have largely overlooked the geopolitical response that US expansion provoked among Europeans during that decade. This omission is surprising given the fact that this reaction spread not only in governmental circles but also among the broad public: the policy of the USA and its position in the Americas became an important topic with serious consequences for both sides of the Atlantic. Europeans often criticized the USA for its aggressive policy, and they feared that with the rise of its power it would behave in the same way in all parts of the world. The article's principal aim is to reveal the European response to US territorial expansion and how the repercussions of this response on the USA contributed to the rise of pan-Europeanism, nationalism, imperialism, and colonialism from the mid-nineteenth century.

Bipartisanship and US Foreign Policy: Cooperation in a Polarized Age, written by Jordan Tama

Bipartisanship and US Foreign Policy: Cooperation in a Polarized Age, written by Jordan Tama

Strategic ambiguity and chemical warfare in Ukraine

Abstract This article revisits the concept of strategic ambiguity to identify and critically assess the overlooked role of international norms. Addressing a significant gap within the existing analysis of strategic ambiguity which fails to fully explain the role of norms, the article demonstrates how international norms construct and function within deliberately ambiguous foreign policy as the normative exploitation of epistemic ambiguity. Yet the article further reveals that strategic ambiguity is then systemically dependent on a precarious overreliance on epistemic ambiguity; this comprises a highly fragile policy framework which is excessively vulnerable to change. The article applies this innovative retheorization to an empirical case-study: United States foreign policy concerning the alleged Russian chemical warfare strategy in Ukraine. This analysis is based on an original and comparative discursive analysis of US administration and institutional public statements drawn primarily from government archives. The new analysis a) identifies US policy as strategic ambiguity and explains the strategy's motivations and perceived benefits; b) shows how an international norm (the chemical weapons taboo) was employed to enact an ambiguous foreign policy; but also, c) demonstrates the intrinsic fragility and potential collapse of this strategic ambiguity as a consequence of normative dynamics.

Anti-populism and the Trump trauma in US foreign policy

Abstract In challenging normal patterns of foreign policy legitimation and undermining the internationalist consensus in favour of liberal hegemony, Donald Trump's populism constituted a political trauma for the foreign policy establishment (FPE) of the United States. How did the FPE respond? Based on a discursive approach and using the methodology of qualitative frame analysis, we examine the anti-populist response to the Trump trauma on the part of the FPE. The findings show how the FPE framed Trumpian populism as a political anomaly through interlocking frames of authoritarianism, irresponsibility and immaturity. This could only be rectified through a process of foreign policy normalization, carried through the first two years of the Joe Biden administration, which aimed to stabilize US leadership and restore the consensus that existed prior to the populist disruption. Highlighting the emotional dimensions of anti-populism, the article contends that to fully understand the effects of global populism, we must examine elite responses to populist ‘ruptures’ of the kind Trump represented. By extending the concept of anti-populism to debates on foreign policy, the article addresses existing gaps in the literatures on anti-populism and the effects of populist foreign policy.

A ‘natcon takeover’? The New Right and the future of American foreign policy

Abstract Donald Trump's capture of the Republican Party enabled a radical questioning of received wisdom within the broader conservative intellectual movement. In particular, it enabled the emergence of a post-Trump, distinctly American New Right. This policy paper examines the American New Right and its visions for United States foreign policy. In the context of contemporary American politics, the New Right is best understood as a rejection of the ‘fusionism’ that has characterized US conservatism since the early decades after the Second World War. The paper argues that there are three major identifiable parts of the New Right: the Claremonters, the post-liberals and the national conservatives. In part because of their ‘big-tent’ character, as well as deft intellectual leadership by Yoram Hazony, the national conservatives have become the most influential group within the contemporary New Right. The article also examines how the New Right has attempted to create an alternative ideational infrastructure, with a clear focus on entrenching itself through large-scale credentialing of personnel deemed to be loyal to the New Right's agenda. There is reason to speak of a ‘natcon takeover’ of traditional conservative institutions. This is particularly the case with the Heritage Foundation, the largest and most influential conservative think tank. While all segments of the New Right ostensibly embrace some notion of grand strategic restraint, the policy paper argues that the rise of national conservatism is likely to accelerate the US pivot from Europe to Asia rather than lead to neo-isolationism, as is sometimes suggested.

Latin American foreign policies in the new world order: the active non-alignment option

Latin American foreign policies in the new world order: the active non-alignment option

"City upon a Hill" in the Face of Significant Challenges

The editor-in-chief proposes a context for examining the crisis processes in American society explored in the articles. The author suggests that this crisis should be viewed in the context of the American history cycles. Many of the current conflicts in the USA have a similar internal source, which is a sharp intra-elite conflict involving a significant part of society. This conflict is unusual in its depth, given that for many decades the «trademark» of the American political class has been its consensus character. One important element of this consensus can be seen as an unquestioned focus on global American leadership and a shared commitment among members of the community to the force imperatives in foreign policy – either the classic “hard” or “flexible” power. Among the sources of American foreign policy continuity are a number of factors. First, it is the stability of institutional mechanisms of decision-making, which, in turn, is based on a stable system of representation of dominant interests. Second, the stability of formal and informal institutions that ensure a high degree of elite cohesion; and the specificity of American political culture, which is based on a set of political and philosophical views of messianic nature. The consensual nature of the political elite was the system-forming basis of liberal democracy, so the breakdown of this consensus may entail – and partially has already entailed – a crisis of the US political system.

The Diplomatic Presidency: American Foreign Policy from FDR to George H. W. Bush. By Tizoc Victor Chavez. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2022. 320p. $39.95 cloth.

The Diplomatic Presidency: American Foreign Policy from FDR to George H. W. Bush. By Tizoc Victor Chavez. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2022. 320p. $39.95 cloth.