Realism Foreign Policy Essay

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Foreign policy is essentially the way in which a government deals with other governments and is typically a reflection of that nation’s interest or the values of the people. For this reason, there is often quite a lot of debacle over foreign policy, changing when there is either a liberal or a conservative administration. There are two primary approaches to dealing with foreign policy, realism and idealism. Realism is the idea that national interest and safety is put above moral principles whereas idealism is the idea that foreign policy must reflect those moral principles. I believe that an idealistic foreign policy is best suited for the United States at this moment in time because it will dissuade accusations of hypocrisy, stabilize the …show more content…
Since the debut of the United States as a world power and journey into internationalism after the World Wars, presidents have used executive agreements to undo what previous presidents have done. For example, George W. Bush implemented “realist” policies while current President Obama now has an “idealist” foreign policy. Another example of such is our interaction with the Arabs. The United States has turned its eyes away from dictatorships like Iraq, Syria, and Libya. It may have seemed our previous support was only for their oil or in return for their support during the Cold War. If the United States were to remain consistent with their liberalist foreign policy, we would be able to move on from their past. Instead of focusing on maximizing military power, we would be able to rise above this and achieve what Woodrow Wilson was truly aiming for with his Fourteen Points. The idea of an international coalition of peace is theoretically a good idea. I believe that the time period at which it was implemented was simply not receptive. Currently, the United Nations mirrors this idea. Bringing together a coalition of peace of democratic nations could help all nations achieve civility. As the democratic peace theory states, democracies do not fight each other, but fight anyone else. Therefore, if it were ideally possible to create democracies worldwide, there would be no

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