American Foreign Policy Flashcards
Grade 11 · Social Studies · Flashcards
Key doctrines, events, agreements, and concepts in the history of United States foreign policy.
Flashcards
- Washington's Farewell Address (1796)
- Warned against permanent alliances with foreign nations and sectionalism; foundational text for American isolationist tradition.
- Monroe Doctrine (1823)
- Declared Western Hemisphere closed to new European colonization; U.S. would view interference in the Americas as a threat; later expanded under the Roosevelt Corollary.
- Manifest Destiny
- 19th-century belief that the U.S. was destined to expand across North America; later extended to justify U.S. expansion into the Pacific and Caribbean.
- Truman Doctrine (1947)
- Pledged U.S. support for nations resisting communist takeover; first used to support Greece and Turkey; set precedent for Cold War interventionism.
- NSC-68 (1950)
- Classified National Security Council document recommending massive U.S. military buildup to counter Soviet power; reflected the militarization of containment.
- Nixon-Kissinger Détente
- 1970s policy of easing Cold War tensions through SALT I arms control treaty, opening relations with China (1972), and diplomatic engagement with the USSR.
- Carter Human Rights Policy
- President Carter made human rights a central element of U.S. foreign policy, conditioning aid and diplomatic relations on countries' human rights records.
- Iran-Contra Affair (1986)
- Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran and illegally diverted proceeds to Contra rebels in Nicaragua, violating the Boland Amendment ban on Contra funding.
- Humanitarian Intervention
- Post-Cold War doctrine that the international community has the right and responsibility to intervene militarily to protect civilians from genocide or mass atrocities.
- Unilateralism vs. Multilateralism
- Central foreign policy debate: whether the U.S. should act alone (unilateralism) or work through international institutions and alliances (multilateralism); Bush favored unilateralism post-9/11.
- Foreign Aid
- Economic and military assistance to other countries; serves diplomatic goals and is often conditioned on policy changes; less than 1% of the U.S. federal budget.
- Diplomatic Recognition
- Formal acknowledgment by one state of another's government as legitimate; a powerful foreign policy tool (e.g., U.S. recognized China's government in 1979).
- Economic Sanctions
- Trade restrictions, asset freezes, or financial penalties imposed on countries or individuals; used as an alternative to military force (e.g., against Iran, Russia, North Korea).
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