Foreign Policy

How should a nation-state develop its foreign policy in accordance to its values and in connection to the development of its domestic policy?

Nations should develop their foreign policies with the well being of the nation, USA in this case, as their top priority.  One of the worst things a nation could do is conduct their foreign policies based on a world poll.  I believe that protecting the nation’s assets and interests should be the top priority.

In the past I have heard people mention that we should conduct our foreign policy in accordance to our values.  I believe that, that would be a great idea.  An idea that would probably find this nation broke and fighting wars on all the continents in the world.  Why is that, somebody might be asking?  Well, the way that I see it, if one of our nation’s values is to help the poor and protect the week, then how do we go about doing that with real results all around the world? 

In 2003 when the United States Military was sent into action in Iraq to dispose of a brutal dictator, one that had killed thousands of his own people who threatened the world and the region with his arsenal of weapons, including weapons of mass destruction, the US President was called a war monger, people said that Bush went their for oil, but if we went into Iraq based on a foreign policy that is based on values how can anyone complain.  We helped the ones that could not help themselves.  A brutal dictator was toppled.  If we based our foreign policy on our values should we not also be involved in helping the people in the Darfur region of Sudan?  How about North Korea, Ivory Coast, Somali and the Ivory Coast among others?  I think it would get expensive pretty quick.

Before we try to conduct foreign policy based on our values, we should probably come up with solutions to our own problems first.  Maybe settle on ways to help the poor here in the US.  Do we give the people handouts for the rest of their lives, making them dependent of government, or do we teach and show people how they can make it on their own, not depending on government. 

Another problem that I see is that when you base your foreign policy of values then it might be much harder for a nation to build a broad coalition of support in certain regions if nobody else cares about the values that you’re trying to protect.

These are just a few issues that I have if someone was to base their foreign policy in accordance to the nation’s values.

I believe that a foreign policy needs to be run with the interest of the nation first.  This is even more important in today’s global economy as a conflict around the world can affect people all over the world.  A nation needs to protect its citizens and its businesses.  It needs to protect its investments anywhere and everywhere. 

Another aspect of foreign policy that I have observed is that when the enemies to a nation perceive that nations policy to be week they will attempt to take advantage of that in any aspect and in any form.  A foreign policy should also have teeth attached to it, not just strongly worded letters.