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ISSUE GUIDES: America's Global Role

CONSIDER THE CHOICES

 

PERSPECTIVES IN BRIEF

Put Domestic Needs First
Promote Global Stability, Prevent Chaos
Promote Democracy and Protect Human Rights

This perspective focuses on America's fundamental economic and security interests. The United States cannot solve all of the world's problems and should not act militarily, except when our own interests are directly threatened. For a half century, during the Cold War, our priority was to hold the Soviets at bay and defeat global communism. Now the U.S. has an opportunity to reassess priorities and focus on what needs to be done at home. It's time to concentrate on domestic concerns such as providing first-rate schools, shoring up the Social Security system, and reducing taxes.
A second perspective focuses on America's global role in maintaining stability and preventing chaos. The post-Cold War world is coming apart at the seams. The United States is the only nation with the economic, moral, and military might to provide global leadership and ensure global stability. U.S. interests are threatened in several regions of the world. The U.S. must pay attention to civil wars, ethnic violence and a host of deteriorating political situations that could spiral out of control, engulfing our allies and threatening our interests. To maintain a semblance of global stability, the U.S. must play a central role as peacekeeper.
A third perspective is concerned above all with promoting democracy and human rights. Winning the Cold War was a historic moral victory. But if fledgling democracies fail in the former Soviet Union, Latin America and elsewhere, what was gained could still be lost. The United States must renew its commitment to promote democracy and protect human rights around the world. This is the perspective that best reflects America's values and ideals. Ultimately, this is also the most practical way to promote world peace, and to expand markets for U.S. goods abroad.

PERSPECTIVES IN DETAIL

Put Domestic Needs First
Promote Global Stability, Prevent Chaos
Promote Democracy and Protect Human Rights


What should be done?

  • Scale back overseas commitments and expenditures, and make domestic needs our main concern.
  • Do only what is necessary militarily to prevent attacks on the U.S. and to prevent nuclear proliferation, deter terrorism and deal with direct threats to U.S. interests.
  • Stop playing global policeman and providing for the security of nations that can afford to pay for their own defense.
  • Maintain the defense forces to fight two wars simultaneously, as the need could easily arise.
  • Bolster the defense budget to ensure that we have the military capability to act on our own, if need be.
  • Strengthen and expand U.S. alliances around the world to extend our ability to influence events abroad and to maintain stability.
  • Be prepared to cooperate with nondemocratic regimes, when necessary, to protect our interests and promote stability.
  • Increase foreign aid to struggling countries.
  • Be prepared to take an active role in disciplining and isolating nations that abuse human rights.
  • Combat antidemocratic forces, and use every opportunity to nurture democratic regimes.
  • Be prepared to sacrifice other goals, including U.S. economic interests, to promote human rights as our primary commitment.
  • Be prepared to act alone, when necessary, to deter antidemocratic forces and deal with human rights abuses.


    • Arguments For This Approach

  • There is no need to maintain armies and armaments at anywhere near Cold War levels because we no longer have a major adversary.
  • There is no reason for the U.S. to pay a disproportionate share of the cost of global peacekeeping.
  • In today's world, the strength of our economy is the real source of the nation's long-term security.
  • Our needs at home are urgent, and require more resources than we are currently devoting to them.
  • To avoid getting caught up in various international crises, the U.S. should define its interests narrowly, and limit its strategic alliances.
  • The threat of chaos and regional instability is real. The collapse of the Soviet Union has uncorked scores of ethnic and religious conflicts around the world that threaten global security.
  • If the U.S. doesn't play a central role as peacekeeper, there is no hope for maintaining global stability.
  • If we do not stay actively involved abroad, U.S. interests will be threatened, and other nations will be able to cut off vital supplies, such as oil.
  • We must be prepared to intervene when necessary to prevent chaos, and we should be prepared to do so early on, when it is possible to use means other than military force.
  • Although international military alliances are generally preferable, the U.S. must be prepared to act on its own when necessary.
  • Defending democracy and human rights worldwide is our primary obligation and our overriding concern. America must be prepared to defend something more than our strategic needs and our economic self-interest.
  • With the end of the Cold War, we have a historic opportunity to advance democracy around the globe.
  • If the U.S. doesn't take the role of defending democracy and human rights, no other nation will defend those values.
  • Promoting democratic regimes is the best way to ensure stability over the long run, and to expand markets for American-made goods.


    • Arguments Against This Approach

  • We can't pull back from the world. We're the most powerful country on the planet, both militarily and economically, and the world looks to us for leadership.
  • We already devote less, as a percentage of our economy, to foreign assistance than any other major nation.
  • Maintaining a strong defense acts as a deterrent to aggression.
  • History, including two world wars, teaches that the U.S. pays a high price for disengaging from world problems.
  • America's success in the global marketplace requires worldwide stability.
  • If the U.S. isn't prepared to defend democracy and human rights around the world, local tyrants will have their way and fledgling democracies will be crushed.
  • Rich nations like the U.S. have a moral obligation to come to the assistance of poor nations when they need humanitarian assistance, or when civil war causes widespread hardship.
  • If the U.S. pursues the role of global policeman, the nation will be constantly entangled in the problems of other nations.
  • The U.S. was obliged to take the lead in the fight against global communism, but there is no longer a compelling reason for us to continue to play the role of global policeman.
  • It makes no sense for the U.S. to intervene in dozens of small conflicts in hopes that they don't grow into conflicts that threaten U.S. interests.
  • This perspective overlooks the U.S. role in promoting democracy and human rights.
  • Expanding our alliances makes it more likely that the U.S. will be obliged to engage in costly misadventures abroad.
  • This approach misjudges military threats and pays too little attention to other serious issues, such as threats to the global environment.
  • The U.S. no longer needs to continue the Cold War strategy of preparing to fight two wars simultaneously.
  • Given the amount of instability around the world, this approach is hopelessly unrealistic. The U.S. has a limited ability to end world suffering and resolve tensions that lead to civil war and regional strife.
  • Problems in other parts of the world are complex and often cannot be understood through the lens of our own expectations, moral judgments and ideological preferences.
  • Making the U.S. the global champion of democracy and human rights will result in endless entanglements in the internal affairs of other nations, and it will put the lives of U.S. soldiers at risk.
  • If we want to help poor nations, we should export our economic system, not our political system.
  • Authoritarian governments, when they are run by benevolent leaders, are often better able than democratic regimes to meet the needs of poor countries with low literacy rates.
  • The U.S. cannot on its own enforce human rights when there is little consensus worldwide about defining those rights and enforcing them.


    • QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: HOW THE PERSPECTIVES DIFFER

    Put Domestic Needs First
    Promote Global Stability, Prevent Chaos
    Promote Democracy and Protect Human Rights

    Q: What costs or tradeoffs are associated with this course of action?
    A:
    If the U.S. focuses too much on domestic issues, it runs the risk of being taken by surprise and harmed by international events.
    A:
    Increasing defense readiness against such things as missile attacks will keep taxes rising and could threaten relations with other nations.
    A:
    We need to be willing to take an active role abroad whenever human rights are threatened or democratic regimes are in peril.


    Q: What is the chief threat that the United States needs to be concerned about?
    A:
    The chief threat is domestic neglect, with the nation weakened by not spending enough on first-rate schools, human services, and help for those who live in poverty.
    A:
    The chief threat is global instability, civil wars that expand into regional wars, and other international threats to U.S. interests.
    A:
    The chief threat is that human rights abuses will continue, and democratic regimes will be replaced by dangerous tyrants.


    Q: What should be done regarding foreign aid?
    A:
    Nearly all programs should be eliminated.
    A:
    Foreign aid should be used to advance our strategic interests, for example, helping the former Soviet Union disarm its warheads.
    A:
    Aid should be expanded to support new democratic regimes, and to promote human rights.


    Q: Should the United States intervene in civil wars and ethnic conflicts around the world?
    A:
    No. Such conflicts don't directly affect the U.S., and we can't do much about them anyway.
    A:
    The U.S. should intervene whenever necessary to protect American interests and restore stability.
    A:
    The U.S. is obliged to intervene to protect human rights and support democratic regimes.