Term
|
Definition
-1776
-In the context of the United States’ rebellion against British colonial rule, John Adams drafted the Model Treaty in 1776 as an ideal version of any alliance the budding nation would enter into with France. The treaty provided only for friendship and free trade, rejecting any political or military ties between the two governments. This idealistic spurning of political and military ties was an early embodiment of the American tradition of unilateralism, but provided little to no incentive for French cooperation, and thus fell flat. |
|
|
Term
| Washington’s Farewell Address |
|
Definition
-1796
-In his Farewell Address, given upon the end of his presidency in 1796, Washington sought to advise the nation in whose formation he had played so heavy a role. Since referred to as the “holy writ of U.S. foreign policy,” this address outlined the American traditions of American Exceptionalism domestically and Unilateralism (and, more generally, neutrality) internationally. Advising that the failure to protect the two traditions would disrupt American unity and betray American interests, Washington formally inculcated a pair of traditions that would direct American policy for the following centuries. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1803
-The Louisiana Purchase, carried out under Thomas Jefferson’s administration in 1803, doubled the size of the United States while eliminating the threat posed by French-controlled territory bordering the new United States. After receiving the territory from Spain in an attempt to rekindle a French colonial empire in the New World, Napoleon soon found himself stretched thin, given the French defeat in Haiti and the rewarming of European conflicts. Jefferson sent Monroe to France to purchase the territory, in short, at the opportune moment, eventually buying the land for just three cents per acre. Jefferson had significant misgivings regarding the (un?)Constitutionality of an expansionist foreign policy, and in going through with the purchase, marked a shift toward an expansionist foreign policy. |
|
|
Term
| Adams-Onís “Transcontinental” Treaty |
|
Definition
-1819
-The Transcontinental Treaty, signed in 1819, ceded Florida to the United States and set a fixed border between Mexico (still under Spanish colonial control) and the United States. The Treaty followed a series of conflicts regarding continued Spanish control of Florida. Except in New England, Americans strongly supported U.S. control over Florida, as it was a generally deserted territory, populated by Native Americans, criminals, and escaped slaves. The United States sought control over the territory by diplomatic means, but following reports of British citizens’ efforts there to arm Native Americans and undermine Spanish and U.S. authority, Andrew Jackson and his militia took Florida by force, forcing Spain’s hand and spurring their cession of the territory to the United States. (Interestingly, as part of the agreement, Spain also turned over to the United States any claim it had to the coveted Oregon Territory.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1823
-The Monroe Doctrine, introduced in 1823, articulated the third of America’s major foreign policy traditions: the American System of States. The goals included the protection of (North and South) American territorial integrity and the deterrence of Europe from seeking new colonial territory – though the United States was recognized as not having enough power to back up any true deterrent. Despite the United States’ continued weakness relative to European powers, the Monroe Doctrine (of course, in combination with other factors including continuing intra-European conflict and competition) did ultimately help the United States in securing territorial deals in its own interests. |
|
|
Term
| Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo |
|
Definition
-1848
-The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in 1848, provided for Mexico’s recognition of Texas and cession of what is now New Mexico Arizona, California, Utah, and Nevada to the United States, effectively increasing its size by a third, in exchange for $15 Million USD – a sum so small that it was understood to be nothing more than “conscience money.” In signing the Treaty, President Polk aimed to end the all-Mexico movement, satisfying Americans’ expansionist sentiments in the process. Still, the Treaty left a weighty legacy, as it represented a shift from peaceful idealism to hard, realist politics in diplomacy, and reopened divisions within American society regarding the nature of an American empire (one of liberty, slavery, or both). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1853-1858
-Eager to appease expansionist-minded Americans, Daniel Webster (Sec. of State) focused on opening Japan. US mentality: businessmen, also JQ Adams believed it's against the law of nature to close oneself off from commerce and civilization. Japan offered new commericial options (coal), as well as a safe haven for ship-wrecked US sailors. Plan to expose Japan to new technologies, also to "civilize" Japan; Japan haughtily educated themselves on Western ways so as to use Western power against them. Americans saw opening of Japan as an extension of Manifest Destiny, and the Japanese saw the new exposure to Western ways as an opportunity to challenge the West for supremacy (which they did within a generation).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1861-1862
-Civil War: Lincoln declared Southern privateering (running to foreign countries to purchase arms) illegal, and the ensuing blockade mirrored the acts the British had repeatedly committed (and the Americans hotly protested) from 1793-1812. Wilkes, Captain of Union Navy, intercepted 2 Confederate diplomats en route to Britain via Union blockade. Both Seward (Sec. of State) and British agents knew Wilkes' actions were illegal, and the diplomats were released. As a result, Britain recognized that their wartime acts of impressment before 1812 had been wrong. Seward (Sec. of State) averted war with Britain in Confederate side, and emboldened the Union cause. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1898
-“Remember the Maine, and to Hell with Spain!” was the slogan adopted by those Americans who advocated U.S. intervention in the Cuban war against Spanish colonial rule.
** |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1899-1901
-When the Japanese and European imperial powers engaged in the 1890s Scramble for Concessions in China, American businessmen and officials feared U.S. trade and investment would be barred from the vast China market. So Secretary of State John Hay issued two diplomatic notes around 1900 that urged the imperialists to pursue Open Door policies. In fact, the U.S. lacked the power to command such respect, but the principle remained at the heart of American policy toward East Asia right on down to Pearl Harbor. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1904
-The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, announced in President Theodore Roosevelt’s State of the Union Address in 1904, explicated the shift in U.S. foreign policy toward gunboat and dollar diplomacy in the Western Hemisphere. Little more than a justification for continued U.S. regional hegemony motivated by U.S. interests alone, the Doctrine argued that instability or chaos anywhere in the Western hemisphere threatened the entire region, and as such, a regional hegemonic power had the right and responsibility to intervene in order to restore stability. Further, the Doctrine identified the United States as the state that must carry out that intervention, if only to keep other (European or Asian) powers out of the region. Thus the Doctrine formally established the United States as a regional hegemon in the Western hemisphere, though still justifying that hegemony on a moralistic and protective rationale. |
|
|
Term
| “Peace Without Victory” Speech |
|
Definition
-1917
-T. Roosevelt wanted to enter war on GB's side in defense of morality and the balance of power. Yet Wilson, echoing Washington's assurance that neutral states profited best (and they did pretty well supplying Brit forces), believed that conquest and vengeance only lead to further conflict, while peace created lasting "victory". "Peace forced upon the loser...would be accepted in humiliation...and would leave a resentment upon which terms of peace would rest." Clemenceau believed it to be naïf, and was proven right: once US was in war however (Zimmerman telegram to Mexico provocation), these ideas were swept away, and Americans believed as strongly as anyone else that the war should be fought for total victory. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1918
-In his Fourteen Points speech, delivered in 1918, President Wilson introduced his vision of a new American diplomacy, based on the United States as a crusader state, promoting the ideals of democracy, free trade, self-determination, disarmament, and collective security on the global arena. This highly ideological speech and the points outlined in it were the basis for Germany’s willingness to sign the armistice that ended the First World War, though Wilson’s efforts to promote these points at the Paris Peace Conference failed, ultimately resulting in Germany’s feeling betrayed by the United States and the Allies more broadly. Despite Wilson’s writing and promotion of the Points, the United States failed to participate in the capstone project they generated: the League of Nations. |
|
|
Term
| Washington Conference Treaties |
|
Definition
-1921-1922
-The Washington Conference Treaties, established from 1921-1922 and orchestrated by Secretary of State Hughes, were a set of agreements among the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan regarding the powers’ navies, sovereignty, and trade. The Treaties required that the powers reduce their navies, respect a ten-year moratorium on building battleships, acknowledge states’ independence, and abide by the principles of sovereignty and the (Chinese) open door. Further, each power was limited to having just one great Pacific naval base. The Treaties were largely successful due to Hughes’ skillful diplomacy – having already softened Great Britain and Japan, he further could guarantee Japan’s cooperation, having already broken their code. The Treaties’ success can also be seen as a product of the post-First World War era, in which states were eager to take measures to avoid another such conflict (even should those measures, to an extent, threaten their own security). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1928
-The Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 required that all parties renounce the use of war as a diplomatic strategy. Though the Pact did not, of course, actually prevent the later outbreak of war, it did come to be signed by fifty-seven governments. The peace that the Pact helped to ensure, at least for a while, can be seen as thanks to Secretary of State Hughes’ skillful internationalism. Nevertheless, the Pact can also be seen as the jumping-off point for the United States’ isolationism that would prevail through the 1930s. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1935-1937
-Disillusioned by the Great War, and hard-hit by the Depression, the American expressed their desire to return to traditional values by universally embracing neutrality. The Acts were designed to ensure that the US would never again provide arms and money to belligerents or send ships into harm's way. Isolationists from all political parties, regions, and religious camps embraced major points: foreign powers represented no threat unless US meddled with their affairs, world couldn't be reformed through war, and another great war might destroy American liberties at home. These Acts simply represented post-WWI and Depression-era return to isolationist policy: however, after war broke out in 1939, FDR appealed to Congress to repeal the Neutrality Acts, claiming that, "Never before since Jamestown and Plymouth Rock has our American civilization been in such danger as now." |
|
|
Term
| Cash-and-Carry and Lend-Lease |
|
Definition
-1939-1941
-Cash and Carry (1939): Revision to Neutrality Acts. FDR proposed the sale of arms to belligerents as long as they provided their own transportation and assumed all risk. Helped buoy industry production post-Depression, support allies (GB) and still maintain neutrality.
-Lend-Lease (proposed 1940, passed 1941): Vowing he wanted to keep war away from the US, Roosevelt proposed that the US lend or lease goods to the British, who would then return the goods after the war. FDR claimed this would avoid hard feelings about war debts: like lending hose to neighbor whose house was on fire, just give it back in the end. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1944
-From 1940-1944, US industrial production shot up 90%, while Euro economies were devastated by war. With obvious end of isolationism and New Deal policies, and to prevent a post-Depression(esque) shock, US leaders called a conference of non-Axis powers in mid-1944 to ensure an open, capitalist postwar world. Established World Bank with treasury almost completely supplied by US to help rebuild war-torn Europe, and the IMF, whose funds were used to stabilize those currencies devastated by inflation. Postwar economic system constructed upon gold standard (US had 2/3 of world's gold) and the dollar. Established US dominance in post-war global economy. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-Feb. 1945
-Meeting in Crimea amongst Stalin, Churchill, and (a dying) FDR to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. FDR was hopeful for Stalin's cooperation post-WWII, Churchill was suspicious of his motives. Stalin wanted Poland, all agreed to demilitarize and denazitize Germany, Stalin wanted significant reparations from Germany. FDR made significant negotiations to get Stalin's promise to enter war vs. Japan. Controversy: A-bomb solved that problem anyway, didn't need to make such concessions to Stalin. Red Army seized Manchuria and Poland...FDR basically signed them over. Yalta remained controversial even into Cold War. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1946
-The Baruch Plan, presented to the United Nations in 1946, was President Truman’s attempt to bring nuclear power under the auspices of international (rather than state) authority, in an effort to prevent a nuclear arms race among the world’s great powers. Under this plan, the UN – not any individual government – would regulate all nuclear materials and technology, monitoring and regulating states with nuclear programs and punishing those that acted outside the provisions of international law. Further, the Plan stipulated that nuclear power would no longer be used for arms development, instead being restricted to use as an energy source. Following its presentation at the UN, the USSR and Poland veto the plan, because as it was written, the United States would not be required to give up its own nuclear secrets until the Plan took effect. This antagonism between the USSR and the United States can be seen as the official beginning of the rocky relationship between the two powers with respect to nuclear power, though the Plan can probably be seen as little more than a representation of U.S. idealism and hegemonic goals. |
|
|
Term
| Long Telegram & Iron Curtain Speech |
|
Definition
-1946
-Iron Curtain: Churchill warned of spreading Communist ideology, call for military collaboration between US and GB until UN became stable. Truman was pleased to let Churchill float a trial-run of new "get-tough with Russia" policy.
-Long telegram: George Kennan, veteran observer of the USSR, appealed to American policymakers to avoid cooperation with USSR and to instead use a sphere of influence approach to reduce Soviet influence in Europe. Truman used major points in telegram to formulate Truman Doctrine (US policy to defend people subjugated by ideology). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1948
-At the end of World War II Berlin was jointly occupied by the Allies, but the city lay deep inside the Soviets’ East German occupation zone. In 1948, after the outbreak of the Cold War, Stalin ordered the Red Army to blockade West Berlin in hopes of prying out the Western powers. But Truman saved the city and avoided war through the massive Berlin Airlift and Stalin’s ploy backfired when the Western democracies formed NATO and the West German Republic in 1949. |
|
|
Term
| Eisenhower’s “New Look” Strategy |
|
Definition
-1953-1960
-Phase of Containment in which Eisenhower slashed defense spending, and relied on nuclear deterrence and alliances ringing the Communist world to protect US interests in an insecure world.. Represented shift in American defense policy: focus on specialized technologies (B-52, targeted atomic deliverance) to deter and contain Communist threat. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1956
-Suez: Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt in response to Egyptian forces resistance to British presence in the Suez canal. Egypt nationalized canal through which West's oil supply flowed, and turned to the Soviets for arms. US responded by offering to finance the building of the Aswan Dam, but the lack of Egyptian cooperation led to the withdrawal of US support. GB lied to US, it was a plot that they hadn't included the US in. Soviets crushed protests in Poland and Hungary, Eisenhower was distracted with Suez and couldn't defend them. Eisenhower reacted angrily and threatened to isolate GB and France from their oil source; this badly split the Western alliance. Also, the struggle to impose order in Hungary and Poland forced Communist leaders to realize just how fragmented and weak the Soviet bloc had become. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1958-1961
-In 1958, Khrushchev issued an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Western forces from Berlin within 6 months. Subsequent meetings btwn/ Khrushchev and Eisenhower led to discussion on Eisenhower's desire for demilitarization, and planned peace summits to negotiate a peace in Berlin were spoiled by failed U-2 spyplane missions. JFK took over talks, requested increased defense spending, made Khrushchev angry. By end of 1961, East Berlin constructed a wall dividing the city. Miltary build-up and nuclear testing increased on both sides. Led to the Cuban Missile Crisis. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1962
-JFK isolated Cuba by expelling Cuba from OAS (Organization of American States), pushed Castro closer to Khrushchev, who positioned arms and Soviet advisers in Cuba. Oct. 1962, U-2 spyplane filmed intermediate-range missiles in Cuba. Advised to bomb Cuba, but instead JFK set up a blockade to cut off Cuba and squeeze out Khrushchev. TV address threatened USSR, not Cuba, with full military response. Khrushchev offered to dismantle missiles if JFK promised to never invade Cuba, and that if JFK removed missiles from Turkey, USSR would remove missiles from Cuba: disaster averted. Results: USSR began to dramatically build-up defenses closer to American levels, JFK won reelection but came under criticism for not defending the Monroe Doctrine, European powers were miffed because they had come close to annihilation without having any say, also bcs the US dropped plans to help defense buildup in GB and FR because it wasn't "cost efficient." Cuba and USSR entered into more transparent talks with the US; world suddenly knew what it felt like to teeter on the edge of nuclear disaster. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1964
-N. Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked a US warship in the Gulf of Tonkin. In response, LBJ ordered bombing of N.'s ships and bases; following resolution declared that he had the right to "take all necessary measures to repel and armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." Sailed through the House, encountered trouble from Dems in Senate who feared "blank check" to use violence in Southeast Asia. Resolution passed, partially due to voter ignorance (25% didn't know China was a Communist country or that soldiers were fighting in Vietnam), as well as support for containment of Communism. |
|
|
Term
| Nixon/Kissinger Grand Design |
|
Definition
-1969-1973
-Twofold policy plan: 1) Contain Soviet power through a linkage of carrots and sticks: manipulated Soviet behavior by rewarding them with subsidized American food, arms control agreements, etc. 2) Sino-Soviet split led to clashes on border between China and Russia. Resulting détente: US profited by courting China, scaring USSR into thinking they'd ally against them, so USSR tries to get into "wooing" game. US plays the two off each other for their own profit. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1975
-35 states, including US, USSR, Canada, all Euro states except Albania and Andorra signed the declaration to improve relations between the West and the communist bloc. Civil rights portion intended to increase rights of minorities within USSR (but they pretty much ignored that). Reduced Cold War tensions, major USSR diplomatic boost (due to clauses on the inviolability of international borders, consolidating USSR's territorial gains in Eastern Europe post-WWII). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1980
-The Carter Doctrine, proclaimed in 1980 at the end of President Carter’s presidency, stipulated that the United States would not permit any hostile power (namely, the USSR) to dominate the oil rich Persian Gulf. The Doctrine was proclaimed in response to prior (Soviet) actions in the region, including the USSR’s heavy involvement in Afghanistan under the Brezhnev Doctrine. To achieve its goal of reducing Soviet influence in the Persian Gulf, the Doctrine announced the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympic games, its cutoff of grain sails to the USSR, and the first post-Vietnam increase in defense spending, therefore combining security threats with economic and normative measures to attempt to influence Soviet behavior. Interestingly, the early 1980s defense buildup in the United States is largely attributed to President Reagan, though it began a year before his presidency under the Carter Doctrine. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-1981-1988
-The Reagan Doctrine, announced in 1981 and developed/in use through 1988, stipulated that the NSC and the CIA would support armed insurgents (so called “freedom fighters”) fighting Communist regimes in the third world. The Doctrine was used to justify U.S. involvement first in Grenada in 1983, and then in Afghanistan in 1986. In Grenada, the United States (with OAS permission) provided military assistance to revolutionaries, who then successfully overthrew the totalitarian Communist government in place, notably signaling to the world that Communist revolutions could be reversed with U.S. aid. In Afghanistan, the United States provided the Mujahideen, rebel Afghani fighters, with U.S. armaments to aid in their efforts to subvert Soviet troops and the Communist regime, ultimately making involvement in Afghanistan too costly than it was worth for the Soviet Union. The Doctrine and its applications can be seen to have turned the proverbial tide of the superpowers’ Cold War competition. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-2002-2008
-The Bush Doctrine, used from 2002-2008, justified preemptive (and, if necessary, unilateral) strikes against any country believed to be harboring terrorism. The Doctrine was used to justify U.S. involvement in both Afghanistan and Iraq in the context of the “War on Terror” and the efforts to defeat the “Axis of Evil.” The Doctrine came to include a number of principles, including the deposition of regimes believed to be threatening (even in the distant future) to U.S. security, the spread of democracy, the fight against terrorism, and the United States’ willingness to subvert international institutions (notably the UN), instead unilaterally pursuing U.S. military interests. |
|
|
