What is the most important world event that has influenced our current foreign and defense policies?

Question

Tell me why?

Answer 1

I do not believe one single event has or should characterize our current defense or foreign policy. That said, many individual decisions made by previous and current administrations have. In the ever changing geopolitical world in which we live, political alliances vary to suit the current political climate and what we as Americans view as effecting our national interests.

In recent times, within the last 75 years, Germany, Italy, Cuba, China, Japan, the USSR, and various mid Eastern countries were enimies of the Unired States. We either went to war or economically sought to cripple them through embargoes or sanctions. The same can be said for a host of Central and South American countries.

But, and this is a big but, as our world situation changed we needed to change with the times and either resolve our differences or seek to sooth strained relationships. It´s the nature of the beast, We can´t and shouldn´t allow static policies to govern when the situation calls for a change in our approach to the facts that now exist.

Remenber....we one KNEW the world was flat....we KNEW the sun revolved around the earth...you get my point.

As friends or enimies change so must we. We will have something they want and they will have something we need. It´s the way it´s been and the way it will be, but as communication and information expands and the world becomes a smaller place for all of us...it will become far more difficult and dangerous for all concerned.

Answer 2

The foundation of the Federal Reserve, and the rise of the military complex are the two most significant events that has influenced our foreign policy and defense policy.

We are protected by two vast oceans, an armed population and two pages of divine inteligence, the United States constitution. That is our defense policy our forfather set for us.

WWI,WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I, we never drew first blood in these wars. It was always an attack on us that drove us into war. An attack that mobilized a country, the propaganda value of Lufistania, Pearl Harbor, DMZ incursion, Tonkin, Kuwaitt is obvious...

If 9-11 was really "terrorists", it would be the first such incident that caused a world war. 9-11 was a tool used by these people to create the only thing that matters to them. MONEY, POWER and EGO. $Cha-ching$. Why are American soldiers trained to take over oil rigs and oil tankers, why does the american public pay to train our military to protect global corporations?

Since the establishment of the federal reserve the Federal government has been able to borrow money to pay for war, change forgein governments and FORCE our ideology upon the world. Our forefathers warned us of messing with the internal affairs of other countries, the real George W. warned of "entangling forgein alliances" For example Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia.

The war machine or Military industrial complex will stop at nothing, including killing three thousand Americans, to keep the machine churning out the ever important $$.

They hide behind the 'terrorists', they use us against us, pitting Liberal vs. Conservative, using words like, ISLAMOFASIST or PATRIOTISM. They divide us so we can not attack them because we're too busy fighting each other. They use fear, they strike a chord in our hearts that we are in danger, we are going to die that these"muslims" will stop at nothing to cut your head off. They use the media to brainwash us, so we don't care or we don't know, they use Religion to justify their moral accomplishments, to inspire those to fight and as a "line in the sand" You're either with us or against us.

BULLSH*T, IT'S ALL A LIE. IT ABOUT THE BOTTOM LINE, and if you can't see that or won't see that, then they have gotton to you, and I pray for your soul.

SAY NO TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER
SAY NO TO THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
SAY NO TO TAXATION WITHOUT APPROPRIATION
SAY NO TO BEING A DEBT SLAVE
SAY NO TO BEING THE DUMBED DOWN POPULAS THEY WANT...

this truth shall set you free.

www.ronpaul2008.com

-our last hope for TRUTH, JUSTICE and the AMERICAN WAY.

Answer 3

The Cold War spawned what is now known as the modern study of international relations. Contemporary foreign/defense policy revoles around what happened at the resolution of the Cold War. Benjamin barber wrote in his piece "Jihad Vs. McWorld" that what what rose from the rubble left by a collapsed Soviet Union was the realization that American democracy and capitalism was the sole surviving dominant ideology on the planet.(at least until Jihad took the place of communism as the dominant challenger to democracy).

Without the Cold War, there would be no focus on terrorism and subsequent dialogues about homeland security or preemption. The end of the Cold War was the end of the previous era of foreign policy (that is, caution, isolationism, and economic imperialism) and signaled the start of our current policies (political imperialism, hegemonic militarism, true economic globalization).

Answer 4

Whoever really believes that it is 9/11 is really really really really scratching the very tip of an iceberg and needs to go to the library. This has been going on in the Middle East for a long time, and 9/11 was just an asteroid that happened to get through the atmosphere... But there have been millions of asteroids before.

9/11 is the day "Muslim terrorists attacked the U.S." but DO NOT act like the U.S. army hasn't been waltzing in the Middle East for decades before that. We have been on their territory since a loooooong time ago.

Answer 5

9/11
We were living naively, thinking no one could hurt us. 9/11 was an event that shook us up, and made much of the American public not only want, but demand, a different strategy for our defense. Too many people died that day. It affected everyone in our country to some extent. Just the quietness of the sky (I lived near O'Hare) affected me. It was the first time since Pearl Harbor that we were attacked on our own soil. A wake up call, that I feel is too easily forgotten these several years later.

Answer 6

Geneva Convention
August 12, 1949 the link breaks down all 4 conventions and the laws of war

Answer 7

9/11. This event was the impetus that changed the focus of the american military from peacekeepers to warriors. Prior to 9/11our military was being used as peacekeepers in places like Bosnia and Somalia. Yes Somalia was a disaster, but that's not the point. The point is, we were using our military with the intent of truly helping other nations. Now, our military is a force at war, ravaging the Middle East, torturing prisoners and intentionally killling innocent civilians. We are not going to places at war to help, we are going to countries and creating war.

While many would like to blame this on George Bush (I dont' like him either), I don't think that he is the sole reason. Don't forget, he had to ask Congress for approval to go to war. Congress gave it to him, and there were yea votes by MANY Democrats (Hillary is one!).

Answer 8

Quite obviously, it was in 1948.

"Israel declared its independence in 1948 after the United Nations approved the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into two states, Jewish and Arab, in November 1947. The Arab countries rejected the plan and attacked the State of Israel the moment it was created. Israel's victory in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War expanded the borders of the Jewish state beyond those envisaged by the UN partition plan."

Why, oh why, does everyone completely ignore and/or deny this little piece of history?

Also, the fact that we are buddy-buddy with Saudi Arabia, which is ideologially no different from Iran, but happens to have an oil deal with us.

Answer 9

imperializm era.
we began to realize how great trading is. we took this too far by putting trade above all else and using things like embargos as punishments for nations we disagree with. while this works with some nations, it does very little with others.

9/11 hasn't changed us that much.
most of the hijackers were Saudis and some of the money going to iraq for the purposes of attacking us is from Saudi Arabia. we still keep trading with them and ignoring their inhumane governments and policies.
also if 9/11 changed us so much, we'd stop interfering in middle eastern affairs as the 9/11 commision stated in order to ease tensions there

Answer 10

9/11/01. Most people were oblivious to how vulnerable our nation was, and to a degree, still is. It has affected our foreign policy on a huge scale because for once, an event which hit home led the dialog rather than how we needed to step in and help other nations. Self preservation took over and most of us have not forgotten.