The Negative Aspects Of American Foreign Policy

Foreign policy today is a conglomeration of a few different areas: security, humanitarian aid, diplomacy, and economics. Security policy entails military operations, and has historically been concerned with dangers posed by countries themselves; as years have passed and technology has advanced, security threats, such as intelligence hacks, have become big concerns. With the rise of groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS, the government finds itself facing “nonstate actors” who pose unique threats, and foreign policy has been revised to reflect that. Security policy, and military operations in particular, is one of the most frequently criticized aspects of American foreign policy. The Pew Research Center conducted a study on public opinion about the war in Iraq, for example, and found that American support for the war decreased from 7 in 10 people backing …show more content…
The second most heavily scorned aspect of foreign policy is humanitarian aid, not because citizens see it as effective; many simply think that the government should focus exclusively on domestic problems and invest more money “at home.” Humanitarian policy deals with environmental protection efforts, human rights policies, and international peacekeeping. The United States actually gives much less in foreign aid than most Americans believe; while 56% of people polled believed that the government spends too much on foreign aid, the truth is that only 1% of the country’s $4 trillion budget goes to foreign countries. After the poll group learned this information, only 28% still believed the government was overspending. The third piece of US foreign policy is diplomacy; this aspect is fairly straightforward and usually causes little fuss. Diplomacy involves maintaining good relations with other countries, whether through sending ambassadors abroad or hosting foreign