Foreign Policy in Focus

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.

The last fifteen years have seen an unprecedented decline in the standard of living of the world’s rural poor, and a related upsurge in both internal and international migration as people search for options.

Since 1994 U.S. statements regarding a newly democratic South Africa, under the leadership of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) have frequently been cast in the language of a love fest.

The U.S. trade embargo and various other sanctions against Cuba have been in place for some 36 years—and U.S. policy toward the island has changed little in that time.

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a wholly owned government corporation established in 1971, provides taxpayer-backed and taxpayer-funded loans, loan guarantees, and insurance to businesses for investments in “politically risky” countries.

The U.S. views Libya and Sudan as rogue states that should be contained by providing U.S. military aid to neighboring countries.

The unquiet legacy of foreign intervention still casts a long shadow over U.S. policy in Indochina.

For 20 years the gap has been widening between the level of economic development in Africa and every other area of the world.

Today, member countries number 125 (nearly the whole world except China, some former communist countries, and a number of small nations) and WTO rules apply to over 90 percent of international trade.

What happened to the peace dividend that was widely expected to accrue from reduced defense spending after the end of the cold war?

The international community, which failed to act when the crisis began, now faces a major challenge in Burundi and, more widely, in Central Africa.

The end of the cold war sparked contentious debate about what constitutes the most effective and least expensive security policy.

A fundamental challenge facing policymakers and activists is how to set and enforce rules to protect workers from repression, exploitation, and danger.

Securing the flow of affordable oil is a cornerstone of U.S. Middle East policy.

Two sometimes divergent, sometimes convergent streams of U.S. policy have played an influential role in defining the economic and political system of Haiti.

Close trade and security ties bind the U.S. and Japan in a web of interdependence.

In June 1993 Nigeria’s military, led by General Ibrahim Babangida, annulled election results, thereby blocking the inauguration of the country’s first civilian president in a decade.

As the country in the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) that leads the effort to seek rapid tariffs reductions, Indonesia is the darling of U.S. export industries.

The Asia/Pacific region is the geopolitical center of the struggle for world power.

For many in the U.S., Somalia is viewed as a powerful symbol of United Nations peacekeeping failure.