The United States became somewhat involved in world affairs during the first decade of the 20th century. With World War I on the verge of eruption, the US tried to benefit from the policy of isolation. As a result, Woodrow Wilson proposed to implement the “Fourteen Points” that were expected to protect the world from future wars (Hammond, 2015). Nevertheless, the pressures linked to the involvement of the US in world affairs were mostly discontinued due to the prevalence of the isolationism movement among the majority of American presidents. When World War II broke out, Franklin Roosevelt advocated for the introduction of significant changes to the foreign and domestic policies in an attempt to conquer the chaos that ruled over Europe (Ikenberry, 2018). As time passed, the US and the USSR got involved in the Cold War that convinced Americans that military matters should always be put first. Nevertheless, the strategy turned out to be ineffective, proving that an aggressive approach does not supply all the answers.
Since the beginning of the 21st century to the present day, the US remains supreme in terms of its military force. Still, the lack of economic and political influence interferes with the country’s increasingly important role from the 20th century. Military conflicts in Iraq and across the Middle East showed that the US diplomatic capacity is one of the weakest in the world (Brooks & Wohlforth, 2016). The world does not see the US as a leader, which hints at the fact that a resurgence is essential for the country that repeatedly viewed diplomatic ties as inferior to military power. Compared to how the US dealt with its international affairs throughout the 20th century, the country’s current position on many issues discloses severe ambassadorial ineffectiveness (Stokes, 2018). The defense budget increases in a rather persistent manner paired with both domestic and international violence that make it hard to believe that the current experts in diplomatic relations could somehow improve the existing state of affairs.
References
- Brooks, S. G., & Wohlforth, W. C. (2016). America abroad: The United States’ global role in the 21st century. Oxford University Press.
- Hammond, P. Y. (2015). Organizing for defense: The American military establishment in the 20th century. Princeton University Press.
- Ikenberry, G. J. (2018). The end of liberal international order? International Affairs, 94(1), 7-23.
- Stokes, D. (2018). Trump, American hegemony and the future of the liberal international order. International Affairs, 94(1), 133-150.