Since the United States is one of the last remaining super powers of the world, we have the obligation to maintain and support good relations with the smaller and weaker nations throughout the world. We should take full advantage of this authority in several different ways. First the U.S. must focus on investing and trading with those nations who have yet to become economic powers; second, we must implement a consistent foreign policy towards the Middle Eastern nations: third, the United States needs to respect the attempts and results of the democratization and religious revivals in the Middle East and Latin America, while taking a passive role in letting the a Western type of democracy take its course: and forth, the U.S. must ease and downplay its conflict with those civilizations who dislike the “Western people” and their way of life.
Obviously, foreign investment is necessary for the future of developing other nations as well as our own. There must be an emphasis on foreign investment and trade, otherwise the third world nations will continue to fall behind economically, technologically, and domestically, which could lead to an economic downfall for the U.S. as
well. The question then arises as to what the United States must do in order to have large trade agreements with other countries other than Japan and Mexico. In order for the U.S. to play a more active role in the economic and political development of many of these developing nations, it must first accept a different philosophy than its
current one. First, it is imperative for the United States to play a similar role in Latin America to the one Japan has played with many of the developing nations in East Asia. The U.S. neighbors Latin
America, and if it wants to play the role of big brother, it must accept the responsibility. Japan has invested, traded, and been a guide for many of it’s neighboring countries in East Asia, making them grow politically and economically while also profiting economically
itself (Japan Remains 1996). The U.S. must realize that the economies of Latin American Nations will play an important part in the future of our own economy, and that it must begin to lead, invest, and aid not just Mexico, but countries such as Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, and Columbia into the twenty first century. The mainstay in American foreign policy has always been to promote and instill democracy. However, in order to do this in a foreign nation, the U.S. must be able to first establish a viable economic relationship and system within the desired nations. We should not expect or want a nation to switch from a total authoritarian government to a market economy; doing so would be a disaster. The former Soviet Union is a notable example of this philosophy. Instead, the U.S. has to be willing to allow developing to nations invest in U.S. markets before we invest in theirs. In return, a viable export / import system will be established. But it is essential that the economy of the developing nation be monitored and run by its own government, and the United States should only be there for advising purposes.
When a reasonable system has finally been achieved, then–not right away–a more American, laissez – faire type of economic network will be allowed to grow. If the greatest challenge the United States faces is implementing a foreign policy that is consistent throughout the Middle East. Islamic nations aren’t likely
to be responsive to ideas such as human rights, and democracy. These nations will never be responsive to western ideas when the United States continues to levy sanctions against them. The U.S. is lucky that it has an ally in Saudi Arabia and Israel, allowing them to
implement many of these foreign policy agendas against the other Middle Eastern countries, without having to face serious economic consequences in the oil and gas industry. Oddly enough though, Saudi Arabia is probably as much against western ideologies as any nation in the Middle East. Women do not have equal rights, torture is frequent, there is no
separation between church and state, and Saudi Arabia is extremely far from developing any sort of democracy (Miller 58). Now, when the U.S. promotes democracy and human rights, why does it support one country and condemn the next? Throughout the Cold War, American foreign policy would give aid to any nation opposing communism. So during that time the U.S. developed a “you’re either with us or against us” type of policy. With that type of policy, many of the Middle Eastern countries became so called enemies with the U.S., which has led to unrest and hatred of western democracies. In this time of global economics, the
United States cannot pick and choose which countries to invest in. In order for the U.S. to defeat the challenges it faces in the Middle East, it must start by supporting the entire Middle East. Israel and Saudi Arabia may be the most attractive offers, but Syria and even
Iran have vast resources that will be very valuable to our economy in the future. Next, the United States must respond to the problems of
democratization and religious revival in the Middle East and Latin America. In the Middle East, there seems to be the notion that attempts at democratization would lead to the downfall of minority rights.
As Judith Miller pointed out, “The promotion of free elections immediately is likely to lead to the triumph of Islamic groups that have no commitment to democracy in any recognizable or meaningful form” (Miller 59). What the United States must do is establish a representational or parliamentary process that recognizes all forms of political action. Simply promoting free elections would lead to a backlash in democratization efforts. The fear is in the idea of one group outlawing another. A democracy might be based on majoritarian rule; but all groups, whether they be Islamic fundamentalist or even Christian, must be able to participate in the political process. Similarly, the United States must show complete support for the democratic process in Latin America. When Salvador Allende was elected President of Chile, the West feared the thought of a complete Marxist
government (Rosenberg 28).
What needs to be respected is not the political ideology of one group or country, but rather its democratic process. ” Because democracy neither forms countries nor strengthens them initially, a multiparty system is best suited to nations that already have a established bureaucracy and a middle class which pays income tax and where the main issues of property, and power-sharing have been resolved, leaving two politicians, or parties to argue about the budgets, and letting the tax payers decide who should come to power” (Kaplan E9).
A problem then arises as to the issue of Islamic and Christian revivalism. How the United States deals with this problem is crucial in maintaining its leadership and future economic entity’s in both regions. The revival of Islam in the Middle East is a reaction to
Western encroachment during and after the Cold War. Traditionalists believe that by opening up to Western culture they are losing their true faith in Islam.
The first step in solving this problem might be to recognize that Muslim nations do not embrace every aspect of liberalism. If the United States can establish itself as a legitimate foreign investor and/or trading partner, rejection of Western philosophies will soon begin to diminish. The U.S. should still stand strong in its fight to combat terrorism and radical militant groups,
but must also stop showing favoritism in the region (i.e. Saudi Arabia). The democratic process can work, but it needs to show the nations of the Middle East that it can be reconciled with religious revival. This is done by allowing groups, majority or minority, the
chance to reap in the rewards of democracy. Can religious revival be intertwined with economic development or democracy in Latin America? The case of Brazil gives us good evidence as to whether it can or cannot. “The theory of liberation grew out of the militant priests’ direct involvement with the working poor, both urban and rural” (Haynes 100). In Brazil, the poor have always been embraced by the church. Priests have worked to show that the church is taking an active
role in the impoverished lives of that country.
The idea began to spread through out the slums and the pueblos, and the poor were soon being encouraged to participate in some sort of political movement, no matter how minor or trivial it seemed. This was the first evidence of a nation undergoing a religious revival and taking steps toward development and democracy. It has been proven that participation in a regime allows for a greater wealth of resources economically and politically, while encouraging development. But, if we try to impose our will by force or intimidation, there will be few willing volunteers to follow and join such a movement. Again, the United States needs to respect the efforts of religious revival because it is returning Christianity or Islam to its roots just as the U.S. is trying to establish democracy to its most basic fundamental aspect in many of these developing nations. The U.S. must allow democracy, in whatever form it takes, to grow. This means concentrating on being empathetic and tolerant to the political and economic developments that might occur during this time of change, rather than taking forceful actions that many believe is necessary. The role the United States took
when communism was being defeated in Eastern Europe and the Western way of life was being pushed to the forefront is the same approach it needs to take with most of these developing nations.
Since the United States is at it’s peak of power in relation to
other civilizations, and Western military power is unrivaled, the U.S. must attempt redefine it image in the non- Western part of the world. “The United States dominates the international political, security, and economic institutions with Western countries such as Britain, Germany, and France.
All of these countries maintain extraordinarily close relations with each other, excluding the lesser and largely non-Western countries. Decisions made at the United Nations Security Council or in the International Monetary Fund that reflect the interest of the United States and its Western allies are presented to the world as reflecting the desires of the world community” (Huntington 39). This type of selfish global policy can not be tolerated if the United States wishes to be the leader in binding a “World Community.” The non-westerners view this global decision making in such a way such in effect makes
“the West look as if it is using its international institutions, military power, and economic resources to run the world in ways that will maintain Western predominance, protect Western interest and promote Western political and economic values” (Huntington 40).
These views do have merit to them nonetheless, because the United States does use it worldly powers to influence these international councils in situations when the so called anti-American countries are involved. Just because one nations civilization and culture are totally different from that of the Western nations, the US should not deem which cultures are acceptable and non-acceptable in the realm of the world. Because for the most part as Huntington states “Western ideas such as individualism, liberalism, constitutionalism, human rights, equality, liberty, the rule of law, democracy, free markets,
the separation of church and state, often have little in Islamic, Confucian, Hindu, Buddhist or Orthodoxcultures” (Huntington 40). By trying to influence its views through the United Nations and International Monetary Fund on the non-Western Countries, the U.S. is in fact just building up more negative sentiment towards itself, which can be seen in the support for fundamentalism of all types by the younger generation in the non-Western cultures.
If the U.S. does not attempt to change it’s image in the near future, a new generation of
fundamentalist will begin carry out all sorts of terroristic activity
against the U.S. that will be more devastating than the World Trade Center Bombing , because hate towards the West will be have been instilled sense birth, and the terrorist will feel that means are
It is in these policies, agendas, and attempts at foreign
investment, and humbleness throughout the world that the United States will be able to maintain its classification as a world power, economically, politically, and socially. If the United States does not act upon these ideas and problems in the near future the results might not be immediate; but we will see the effects well into the twenty- first century when we are no longer regarded as the super power we once were.
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Miller, Judith. “The Challenge of Radical Islam.” The Other World:
Rosenberg, Tina. “Beyond Election.” The Other World: Culture and
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