Foreign Policy in Focus

The U.S. strategy toward Iraq since Desert Storm has failed, and it has no long-term potential.

During the course of the cold war, U.S. policy toward Latin America was shaped by the steadfast belief that the region’s militaries were our strongest and most dependable allies.

Advocacy by human rights groups, repeated media exposure, and reaction to legislative proposals advanced to ban products made by child labor have led to widespread acknowledgment that child labor is a serious problem in the world.

Eritrea’s independence from Ethiopia became official in May 1993, through a United Nations-monitored referendum in which 99.8% of the voters opted for sovereignty.

A nonaligned, economically autarkic, one-party state under harsh military rule since 1962, Burma has metamorphosed into a test case for action on several fronts: human rights in Southeast Asia, international trade relations and the World Trade Organization (WTO), the growing worldwide heroin epidemic, and the role of foreign investors in supporting dictatorships.

Investment funds, established to provide capital for private enterprises and sponsored by government agencies and multinational institutions, are increasing in number every year.

The USIA performs the public diplomacy function of U.S. foreign policy through its USIS posts, exchange activities, information programs, and international broadcasting.

Sudan’s size, strategic location, and as-yet-unexploited oil reserves made it a cold war target of superpower intervention.

The strident anti-Americanism of Iran’s Islamic regime is a direct consequence of past U.S. interference in Iranian internal affairs.

Mobutu’s departure has raised Congolese hopes for a better future, but many are concerned about reported rebel human rights abuses and an ambiguous commitment to democracy.

International flows of private investment have risen sharply in recent years.

The G-7 was formed in 1975 to provide an informal forum for coordination of economic policy among leaders of prominent industrialized nations.

Expansion of the NATO military alliance is proceeding rapidly despite an overwhelming lack of public or congressional debate.

For the cold war generation, U.S. foreign policy toward the Asia/Pacific region was simple, straightforward, and secure.

The absence of a coherent U.S. foreign policy agenda—except in the expansion of exports and investments to promising new markets—leaves U.S. policy decisions at the mercy of old and new prejudices, while ad hoc response to crises becomes more the norm than the exception.

After the cold war, Albania became a country of strategic importance to the United States.

Washington’s increasing focus on promoting international investment and trade is evident in the smorgasbord of assistance offered to U.S. exporters.

In the rush to pass tough spending cuts, Congress and the Clinton administration are avoiding making an obvious choice: welfare over warfare.

In the immigration debate, free marketers square off against cultural conservatives on the right side of the political spectrum; while on the left, civil rights and ethnic advocacy groups oppose environmentalists and job protectionists.

U.S.-Nicaraguan relations have been rocky ever since the end of the U.S.-sponsored war against the Sandinista government.