••••
(Averages)
Explanation of bullet points:
Meaning, in order from left to right
•National Security •Democracy •World Peace •Aid to People in Need
Color Coding
•Failed •Somewhat Successful •Extremely Effective
USAID •••• (12 points)
USAID is a programme started under the Marshall Plan whose objective is to provide aid to developing countries and people in need. According to Wikipedia, “USAID advances U.S. foreign policy objectives by supporting economic growth, agriculture and trade; health; democracy, conflict prevention, and humanitarian assistance.” It has provided countries in need with 0.17% of its Gross National Income, a whopping $23.53 billion in 2006. The program makes certain that all of its actions are easily accessible information.
USAID promotes national security by attempting to stabilizes countries where there may be radical movements because of lack of an acceptable lifestyle, and by being generous to other nations it helps keep the US image positive. The program upholds democracy by attempting to finance operations necessary for a democratic process where otherwise a nation would not be able to. The program unquestionably promotes world peace and aids those in need because that is what it was created to do and it has clearly been the only target of its funding and resources.
Marshall Plan •••• (11)
The Marshall Plan was a program hosted by the United States in which they granted 13 billion dollars of economic aid to many Western European countries after the second World War. By the time the plan came to a conclusion every country that it had helped except Germany had economically grown beyond pre-war levels. It also had an essential role to starting European integration by erasing tariffs and trade boundaries.
The plan indirectly helped national security by preventing the nations the US aided from becoming communist, since the nations knew the US is against communism and wouldn’t give them aid otherwise. It helped to support democracy because it gave the countries a peaceful means of rehabilitating instead of a revolution like the Russian or French revolutions. Both world peace and aid to others were achieved with great success by the Marshall plan because it created a greater alliance between the European nations and it directly aided them to recover from the War.
Spanish-American War •••• (10)
The Spanish-American War of 1898 started off as excitement by the American population about liberating the Spanish colonies in the Mediterranean that had been struggling for independence. After Spain refused to peacefully resolve the Cuban fight for independence, and America heard of riots in Havana, the US government deployed the USS Maine to patrol the waters around Cuba. Unexpectedly the ship exploded and along with muckraking that accused Spain of horrible atrocities, the US government decided to go to war. 109 days later after a few decisive naval victories at Cuba and the Philippines the Treaty of Paris was signed and the United States won the war.
This war was very quick, easy, and mostly light-hearted for America, and had many positive consequences. From the standpoint of national security, the war helped to unite the north and south after the Civil War by providing them a common enemy, and helped to integrate the Black population into society by allowing them to fight for the homeland alongside whites. From the standpoint of democracy, the United States freed five colonies from imperial Spain and allowed Cuba to elect their own government, although it did keep three as US colonies. From a standpoint of world peace—it was indeed a war, but it was short and had relatively few casualties, and it served to resolve conflicts between Spain and its colonies by separating them. Finally, the US aided at least Cuba and Puerto Rico, where citizens were looking for a turnover of Spanish power. The Philippines sought this as well but when the US replaced the Spanish as oppressors they were not pleased.
National Security Council •••• (10)
The Council was created by the National Security Act under president Truman and is the main medium through which staff members can discuss national security and foreign policy matters with the President. The decision making process of the council has become less and less formal and regulated, while the influence of the council has become stronger and reached farther than ever. Throughout its history, the NSC served as the center for all operations regarding foreign policy and national security that the United States has made, including Cold War and post-Cold War invasions.
Though many of the decisions of the NSC have had almost disasterous consequences, many others have served their purpose, and many others still have gone beyond expectations, such as the Peace Corps. So far, national security has been very heavily monitored, so the goal of the national security council has been mostly achieved. This by its very nature supports democracy as the nation that harbours one of the most prolific democracies in the world is kept secure from other ideologies. In addition, the council has passed many decisions, such as the Marshall Plan, that provide very generous aid to peoples that are genuinely in need. However, all three of these things must be taken with a grain of salt for they are done very haphazardly and with many grave and unforgiveable errors, and because of these errors, world peace has been greatly compromised more than once. Therefore, the NSC is a very dangerous, but essential instrument.
Détente •••• (8)
Détente was a period during the Cold War where both Superpowers realized that the hostilities were negatively affecting their economies and that there would really be no benefit to waging a war against the other side. Consequently, both sides started trying to loosen tensions and begin negotiating. The first treaty to be signed was the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 which was the beginning of the period, and several other important treaties such as SALT I were signed. However, by 1979, Détente began to unravel with the hostage crisis in the Iranian revolution, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan followed by US financially aiding Pakistan to oppose communism. Because of this, many planned treaties were abandoned and tensions increased yet again.
Détente was a very good idea on both superpowers’ parts, but in the end it was only marginally successful at maintaining national security by slightly curbing the nuclear arms race, and equally slightly effective at promoting world peace because even during the peak of good relations each side still had missiles pointed at each other and the Vietnam War was raging throughout the entire period. The goal of supporting democracy wasn’t achieved because the United States increased relations with a communist country. However, the United States did send vast shipments of grain to the Soviet Union to help them after the failure of kolkhoz, so providing aid to people in need was visibly effective.
Cuban Missile Crisis •••• (6)
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, Soviet Union and Cuba during the cold war with the climax of the crisis beginning on October 15, 1962 when United States discovered the missile silos and bases being build on the island of Cuba and then came to a conclusion two weeks later on October 28 when the two superpowers agreed to dismantle all missiles in Cuba.
The actions that Kennedy took during the Cuban Missile Crisis did maintain national security, as he quarantined Cuba in order to prevent the Soviet Union from putting more missiles there. However, the way he treated Cuba—not even noticing them or asking them of what they wanted to do with their own country—cannot be viewed as upholding democracy, and furthermore, his threats to the Soviet Union are anything but an attempt to promote world peace. Finally, providing aid to people in need is not even an applicable goal of this action because the United States cannot be bothered by people in need when we are about to get nuked… right?
Iraq War •••• (5)
The Iraq War is a US-led invasion of Iraq by several different nations. The basis for the invasion was that Iraq posessed and was actively developing weapons of mass destruction and that this was a direct threat to the United States in many ways. However, the weapons of mass destruction were never found in the country even though it was the most heavily investigated case of all time. After the defeat of the Iraq military, the US coalition occupied Iraq and tried to establish a democracy, but many sectarian groups started violences agains the occupation. Estimates of people killed range from 150,000 to over a million, and the cost to the US budget is between 3 and 5 trillion dollars.
From a perspective of national security, the Iraq War was not a good move. Not only did we risk the Iraq government striking us with the supposed weapons of mass destruction, but in the end it was uncovered that there were no such weapons in the first place so the invasion was completely unnecessary. Second, the occupation claims to have attempted to institute democracy to the country, but there is a difference between “supporting” it and imposing it on those that don’t want it, which was evident by the mass insurgency that started happening. Promoting world peace is completely out of the question since an invasion is anything but peaceful, and aid to people in need was completely forgotten as the coalition forces heedlessly killed many of those people in need in Iraq.
The War on Terror •••• (4)
This is a series of operations undertaken by the United States after the September 11 attacks in order to eliminate all possible global terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, with the first being the invasion of Afghanistan by the United States. The war has been going on for more than seven years with no end in sight all over the world. Not only has this been a terrible strain on both our country and the rest of the world, especially economically, but it is also regarded as unproductive. Many experts say that it has actually served to consolidate the opposition to the US, to aid terrorist recruitment, and to increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks.
Though based on a need to maintain national security, the war on terror in many ways has only made it worse—by having a lack of success in the middle east, by heavily straining our economy, by exporting troops and power overseas making our nation less defended on the home front. Though the war on terror tries to promote democracy by fighting against terror dictatorships and the like, it fails by collapsing any type of democracy extant in a country the US invades, and even installing new dictatorships. By the constant warfare and invasion, world peace is heavily compromised by this war on terror, and many people are needlessly killed and left completely neglected.
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