Current Events and U.S. Diplomacy

Current Events and U.S. Diplomacy

Introduction

A presidential doctrine is an ideology which is stated by the president that is used to develop a policy towards a region or country. It consist the main aims, stances and attitudes of the nation's foreign policy which is outlined by the President. Many of the United States presidential doctrines are related to the Cold War.

There were many Presidents that had foreign policy included in their themes, but the term doctrine broadly applies to some Presidents for instance Jimmy Carter, Harry S. Truman, James Monroe, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. They all had their doctrine that fully characterized their foreign policy.

Jimmy Carter as the president in his State of Union Address, proclaimed the Carter Doctrine in 1980 (Dumbrell, 1995). It defined that the U.S will use the military force if it is essential to defend the national interest in the region of Persian Gulf. It was done in the response of invasion of Afghanistan 1979 by Soviet Union and Shah of Iran being backed by U.S was toppled by Islamic fundamentalist both leading U.S to worrying safety of oilfields Middle East and Persian Gulf shipping lanes.

Discussion

Carter's Doctrine

A presidential doctrine is an ideology which is stated by the president that is used to develop a policy towards a region or country that is used to achieve goals set by United State's foreign policy. The doctrines essentially are the key goals, stances, or attitudes that are outlined by the President for USA foreign policy. The term doctrine was coined during the 20th century and the doctrines were according to the themes the president had set regarding their foreign policy.

Carter doctrine was passed on State Union message which said that any attempt by any external force to assert domination over control of the Persian Gulf location will be perceived to be an attack on United States of America and can be countered by any force that is required, let it be military actions (Waxman, 2006).

There was a lot happening at a regional and global scale that leads to President Carter announcing the doctrine. The main reason which motivated him to announce his policy was Soviet Union invading Afghanistan. This is what set the alarm bells ringing and Carter came up to make a strategy of containment for Persian Gulf. Jimmy Carter purpose for entering office was not to confront United Nation, unlike Kennedy. His main agenda was to promote human rights and make them the basis for their foreign policy affair. Earlier years of his presidency his speeches show that he wanted to work together with Soviet and emphasized that their administration was not like Ford, Nixon or Kennedy. There was no fear of communism he said.

His main objective was that there are far greater threats posed by the previous USA administrations rather global security trends. We see that the speeches he did start initially with detente of stability with Soviet in May1977, but things began to change when Somalia's army was attacked by Cuban ...