AMERICAN GOVERNMENT Political Change and Institutional Development

1.	The Origins of American Political Principles
2.	The Revolution and the Constitution
3.	Federalism and American Political Development
4.	Political Socialization and Public Opinion
5.	The Mass Media and the Political Agenda
6.	Interest Groups and Social Movement
7.	Political Parties
8.	Voting Campaigns and Elections
9.	Congress: Lawmaking and Domestic Presentation
10.	The President: Governing in Uncertain Times
11.	Bureaucracy: Redesigning Government for the Twenty-first Century
12.	The Federal Courts: Activism versus Restraint
13.	Civil Liberties and Civil Rights: Balance or Conflict?
14.	Government, the Economy, and Domestic Policy
15.	America’s Place in a Dangerous World

Home | Help

Review | Practice Quiz | Flash Cards | Participation Activity | Weblinks

Chapter Fifteen: America’s Place in a Dangerous World

Review

This chapter dealt with the role of foreign policy and the U.S.’s position and interests in the international political-economic system. First, it examined the relative weakness of the American colonies as they were pawns in the great imperial struggles of the 17^th and 18^th centuries, especially between Britain and France. Second, this chapter discussed the development of U.S. foreign policy from the articulation of the Monroe Doctrine through the World Wars and the Cold War. After a retreat from empire and intervention following World War I, the U.S. became the unmatched political and economic power in the wake of the end of the Second World War. It led in the creation of a series of political and economic alliances like NATO and the GATT in order to secure itself (the Realist view) and to promote democratic-capitalism (the Idealist view) around the world in its containment driven struggle with the USSR during the Cold War.

After the Soviet Empire retreated from its hegemonic challenge, a multi-polar economic world had arrived due to Americans’ relative decline after the successful recovery of the great powers. New security threats like terrorism have arisen, in particular since 9/11, and America’s unmatched hard power has had to be moderated with its soft power in order to face the constraints and embrace the opportunities of a New World Order. How it will do that is open to question as prescriptive theories from realists, idealists and neo-conservatives debate passionately the question, “Whither America in international relations?”

Focus Questions

1. Is it fair to say that the United States has been an expansionist power throughout its history?
2. What were our post-World War II political, economic, and military strategies in relation to western Europe, the Soviet Union, and Japan?
3. How does the United States wield its overwhelming economic and military power in the world today?
4. What responsibilities, if any, do the wealthy nations of the world have to the poorer nations?
5. In light of our cultural, economic, and military resources, what place should the United States seek to create for itself in the world of the twenty-first century?