From a military perspective examine the changing nature of U.S Foreign policy in the post cold war era.

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From a military perspective examine the changing nature of U.S Foreign policy in the post cold war era.

        Since the end of the cold war we have seen a dramatic change in U.S foreign policy towards Europe.  We have seen it change from one of suspicion and aggression towards the Soviet Union to one that is ready to work together militarily with most members of Europe.  Many different events have seen the U.S work together with Europe mostly at peacekeeping but many events have also contradicted this and shown problems in the relationship between the two.  President Reagan foresaw the coming changes that took place and proclaimed in a speech to the house of commons in 1982 that ‘while we must be cautious about forcing the pace of change, we must not hesitate to declare our ultimate objectives and take concrete actions to move towards them’ (Reagan, 1982, ).  This essay is designed to help the reader understand significant events that influenced U.S foreign policy towards Europe, how these events changed or help to explain current foreign policy and what the nature of U.S foreign policy was and what it is today.

        First to understand how U.S foreign policy has changed we must first take a brief look at what it used to be during the cold war era.  America was very suspicious of the Soviet Union and their foreign policy took a realist perspective which ‘was couched in terms of self interest, indeed, in terms of national survival’ (McKay, 2001, page 311).  The U.S was quite isolated from western Europe especially after its bad experiences after the first and second world war.  However it’s relationship towards eastern Europe which was dominated by the communist regime of the Soviet Union and military aggression was clearly evident with both involved in ‘an arms race in which the west must, for its own protection, be an unwilling participant’ (Reagan, 1982, ).  This underlines deep mistrust between the U.S and Eastern Europe because of the differences in their political ideas and shows a strain on America to improve relations with the threat of war seemingly always on the horizon.

        The first major military event in the post cold war era that involved Europe and the U.S was the Gulf War.  This war involved Europe who supported the U.S and it was Britain whose ‘military commitment was the speediest and strongest’ (Dumbrell, 1997, page 166) who backed the U.S up and therefore we already see a willingness to co-operate from the U.S on military matters.  This sense of co-operation between western Europe and the U.S can be highlighted with the reluctance of the European Community to open talks with Iraq several days before the 15th January deadline date in 1995.  ‘Separate talks, it was felt, would encourage Mr Hussein to detect a rift between the Europeans and the Americans’ (Economist, Jan 5th 1995, page 51) and therefore Europe decided to let the U.S attempt a diplomatic solution alone.

        This co-operation between America and Europe can be underlined with the decision on 2nd January 1995 of NATO who ‘agreed to send 42 fighter aircraft to defend Turkey’ (Economist, 2nd Jan 1995, page 51).  This shows how the U.S has gradually started to see Europe as a close ally who they must, for the sake of their own national interest, work together in ensuring world peace.  This point is clearly demonstrated by the ‘recruitment of Gorbachev to bargain, unsuccessfully as it turned out, with Saddam prior to ground assault’ (Dumbrell, 1997, page 162) which also shows an improving relationship between America and the Soviet Union in the post cold war era.  Also the Gulf War led European leaders to send messages to the U.S expressing their desire for their ‘relationship with the U.S to develop in the post cold war era’ (Dumbrell, 1997, page 66).  The Gulf War is a clear example of military co-operation between Europe and the U.S and it helped to achieve ‘unprecedented degrees of international co-operation’ (Dumbrell, 1997, page 161).

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        However critics may point out that the Gulf War was ‘overwhelmingly an American effort’ and shows a continuing theme in American foreign policy for them to ‘go it alone’ (Gordon, 2001, ) and underlines America’s willingness to not get too involved with its European allies so that they can make their own decisions without too much consultation with other countries.  This isolationist theory that still exists gives a good example of how U.S Foreign policy has remained similar to what it was during the cold war and with suspicions in the beginning that the Soviet Union would condemn the attacks ...

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