October 2021
PART – I:
The United
States Foreign Policy in the Asian region – background since end of World War
II.
Forgetting the words of its 1st President,
General George Washington; who in 1789 had given advice to his
country regarding relations with other nations: "avoid entangling
alliances"; the United States has been embroiled in world politics
throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, embracing a
foreign policy that takes up a great deal of its government's time, energy, and
money.
Our review begins with the US foreign
policy in the years after the end of World War-II, where it pursued the policy
of containment of communism, and trying to stop it from spreading beyond the
countries already under communist influence, This led to the advent of the
‘cold war’, a struggle for global supremacy between the USA and the Soviet
Union [U.S.S.R].
Most nations aligned with either camp,
but in the 1960s the Soviet Union drifted away from China, as the communist
movement got divided. Some countries like India, asserted their neutrality and
formed the ‘non-aligned’ block of nations. USA understood that a forced
roll-back of communism by force might lead to a nuclear war, and hence
developed the policy of containment, to oppose the spread of global communism.
The containment policy meant that the
U.S. was committed to fighting the communist expansion around the world. This
was put to test in Vietnam War which commenced in 1954 with 16,000 American
soldiers on-the-ground in South Vietnam that sky-rocketed to over 500,000 at its peak; fighting the Viet–Cong troops of North Vietnam who were supported by
China. In August 1964, the then U.S. President Lyndon Johnson secured
an almost unanimous support of the U.S. Congress for the ‘Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution’, which gave the President authorization, without a formal
declaration of war by Congress, for the use of conventional military force in
Southeast Asia. The resulting escalation of violence proved to be disastrous
for the U.S with 58,220 American dead and 304,704 wounded; leading to a public
realization that America was deeply involved in a war that the majority of its
citizens did not understand or support.
The Nixon Doctrine
announced in July 1969 by then President Richard Nixon, radically transformed
the U.S. foreign policy. It rejected the long–standing policy of containment
that required combat troops on the ground in U.S. friendly / allied countries
and shifted the main responsibility of military defense onto the ally itself.
Under this new doctrine, the U.S. would restrict itself to diplomatic efforts,
financial assistance, supply of military ordnance and military training to the
allied country.
While the Nixon Doctrine was a message
to Asian nations that they had to be responsible for their own defense; the
then Ruler of Iran Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi used this very doctrine to convince
the Americans to sell him military armaments without any limitations, a
suggestion that was embraced by Nixon and his top advisor Henry Kissinger; who
now considered Iran and Saudi Arabia as the two pillars of regional stability
in the Middle–East region. Total arms transfer from the U.S. to Iran exceeded
US$ 552 million and those to Saudi Arabia were worth $ 312 million (in 1972).
When the Indo–Pakistan war of 1971,
that led to the creation of Bangladesh started, the U.S. sent an aircraft
carrier force into the Bay of Bengal as a symbolic support to Pakistan, but
refrained from actual combat on behalf of its critical ally in the then ongoing
and secret negotiations that were underway for building economic ties between
USA and China. The Nixon administration feared that an Indian invasion of what
was then West Pakistan would lead to domination of that region by the Soviet
Union, and seriously undermine its position as a global power. In direct
defiance of the sanctions imposed upon Pakistan by the U.S. Congress, Nixon
supplied it with military supplies while also encouraging China to assist
Pakistan with military hardware. Pakistan lost the war and Bangladesh gained
independence. Initially, India gained the stature of a regional superior power,
but these gains were lost in the negotiations of the Shimla Agreement of 02nd
July 1972.
When Jimmy Carter
took over as President of USA in 1977, he reoriented the U.S. foreign policy to emphasize his country’s commitment to human rights, values of democracy,
nuclear non-proliferation and ending global poverty. He was elected to the
presidency of America during a period of non-hostile relationships with China
and the Soviet Union. As a part of his diplomatic initiatives, he normalized
relations with China and in the process, revoked the U.S. defense treaty with
Taiwan. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, Carter
initiated grain embargo and started to provide armaments and financial aid to
the mujahedin rebels in Afghanistan. These same mujahedin would
later on form the terrorist organizations; Taliban and al–Qaeda.
Carter’s presidency was marked by
several crisis, including the 1979 oil crisis (also known in USA as the 2nd
oil crisis) and the Iran hostage crisis (where 52 U.S. diplomats and citizens
were held hostage for 444 days (from 04 Nov 1979 to 20 Jan 1981) by a group of
supporters of the Iranian Revolution who took over the American embassy in
Tehran. The U.S. initiated ‘Operation Eagle Claw’ on 24th and 25th
April 1980, in an attempt to rescue these hostages, but due to the combination
of bad weather and mechanical failure of the majority of its helicopters at the
secret staging area in the deserts outside Tehran, the mission was aborted.
Afghanistan had been non–aligned in
the early years of the Cold war between the Soviet Union and the Western powers
led by USA, but the 1973 coup deposed the then King of Afghanistan, Mohammed
Zahir Shah and led to the formation of the Republic of Afghanistan under the
leadership of the new (and pro–Western) leadership of Daoud Khan, who had
earlier served as the country’s Prime Minister. Five years later, the
Communists seized power. The new regime which comprised of Nur Mohammed
Taraki’s Khalq faction which was made-up primarily of non-elite Pashtuns
who had adopted Marxism, and Babrak Karmal’s Parcham faction made up of
urban-based middle–classes who followed socialism; signed a friendship treaty
with the Soviet Union in December 1978. The policies of the Khalq
faction that exploited tribal resentments led to the eventual failure of the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Its radical approach to reforms and brutal
crackdown on dissenters encouraged the rebellion of the religious sections of
the Afghan society, leading to the creation of the Mujahidin. In the
April to September 1979 general uprising, Taraki was deposed and replaced by
his Khalq rival Hafizullah Amin. This alarmed the Soviet leadership who
feared that an Islamist government would threaten its control over Soviet
Central Asia. The fall of Amin’s government prompted the Soviet Union to invade
Afghanistan and install Parcham leader Babrak Karmal as president.
In the U.S., the Soviet invasion
alarmed the Carter administration, which believed that the former’s conquest of
Afghanistan would present a grave threat to the stability of the Persian Gulf region.
Carter renewed financial and military aid to Pakistan, who in turn sponsored
the Afghan mujahedin to fight the Soviet forces inside Afghanistan, with the
additional financial assistance of Saudi Arabia and Britain. These events
brought about a significant change in the U.S. foreign policy; ending the
policy of détente and returning to the policy of containment. U.S. support for
the mujahedin in Afghanistan continued until the withdrawal of Soviet
forces in Afghanistan in 1989.
During his administration, President
Carter normalized relations with the People’s Republic of China that controlled
mainland China, and strengthened relations with Japan. The U.S. was hostile to
Vietnam due to its alliance with the Soviet Union, and supported China in its
short border war with Vietnam in 1979. In January 1980, Carter revoked the Sino–American
Mutual Defense Treaty with Taiwan (aka the Republic of China); but
continued to maintain diplomatic relations through the Taiwan Relations Act
[1979].
Ronald Reagan
defeated Carter to win the U.S. Presidency in 1981. His main goal of the
American foreign policy was to win the cold war against the Soviet Union and
the roll–back of communism. This was achieved through the 1989 revolutions in
Eastern Europe, the German re-unification in 1990 and the dissolution of the
Soviet Union in 1991. These events made the U.S. the only super power of the
world, and as part of the Reagan Doctrine, offered financial support to
anti–communist opposition in central Europe while taking an increasingly
hard-line against the communist government in Afghanistan.
During the period of 1978 – 1988, Pakistan was ruled
by Zia-ul-Haq and his military dictatorship. Reagan’s policies focused on
preventing the Soviet Union from taking control of Afghanistan. While the U.S.
Congress approved a US$ 3.2 billion in aid for military and economic assistance
to the mujahedin through Pakistan, the U.S. policy focused on bolstering
the Zia regime and weakening Pakistan’s democracy advocates. The U.S. sold high
performance military equipment to Pakistan, along-with nuclear technology,
sophisticated intelligence gathering equipment and training to both the
Pakistani Armed Forces and to over 100,000 Afghan mujahedin.
The India – U.S relationship was slow
in its improvement, due to the tactic support that India had given to the
Soviet Union in its invasion of Afghanistan. As the relations strengthened
between the two countries, the U.S. approved the supply of selected
technologies to India, that included gas turbines for Navy warships and VLF
communications. By the late 1980s there was a significant improvement in
relations between both countries.
George H.W. Bush
as President of the USA [1989 – 1993], with his extensive experience,
emphasized caution and careful management in foreign policy. In June of 1989,
China violently suppressed the pro–democracy Tiananmen Square protests, leading
to an abrupt termination of military sales by USA to China. In 1991 Bush
decided not to approve a request to license the export of U.S. satellite
components to China for a Chinese domestic communications satellite, citing
Chinese companies engaging in activities that raised proliferation concerns.
US–China relationships deteriorated sharply after the Tiananmen Square Massacre
with estimated death toll of several thousands of the pro-democracy protestors.
There was a revival of hard-line Maoist ideology from 1989 onward and
increased paranoia in the People’s Republic of China (mainland), as communist regimes
collapsed across the world.
William Jefferson
“Bill” Clinton (President of USA, 1993 – 2001),
inherited a United States of America which was the only superpower with a
military strength that far overreached that of the rest of the world. With the
end of the cold war, Clinton focused his priorities on U.S. domestic affairs,
especially the economy. His foreign policy was focused on the promotion of
American trade around the world. In Asia, North and South Korea had agreed on a
process to reduce nuclear armaments, and China was focused on internal
development, having replaced its revolutionary fervor in favor of growth
under the principles of market economy.
Realizing that an increase in
international trade would support the priority of economic growth; delegations
of entrepreneurs, financiers and business group delegations traveled to
various countries; including China, Hong Kong and India. Clinton made it his
priority to maintain trade with China, boost American exports, expand
investments into the Chinese market and create related jobs in the USA to
support this agenda. In 1993, he granted China the ‘most favored nation’
status, and minimized tariff levels on Chinese imports.
Clinton had initially designated this
status as ‘temporary’, and had imposed conditions on its extension dependent on
Chinese reforms in areas of free emigration, release of peaceful prisoners from
local prisons, recognizing and accepting human rights in their society and
permitting free access to international TV and media coverage. Despite the lack
of reforms by the Chinese, Clinton extended the most favored nation status
anyways. In 1998, Clinton visited China on a nine-day visit and in 1999, signed
a landmark trade agreement with China, that would lower the trade barriers
between the two countries and enabling easy exports of U.S. goods to China. The
U.S. Congress voted to grant permanent normal trade relations with China in
2000, and this was endorsed by Clinton in the form of a Presidential Bill.
Even though Clinton pursued the policy
of international trade and economic growth, he was equally prone to use
America’s war-machine when it suited his political needs. On 26 June 1993, he
ordered a cruise missile attack on an Iraqi military complex in Baghdad, as a
retaliation for the supposed assassination attempt on his predecessor
George H.W. Bush by Iraq’s Intelligence services. Twenty–three cruise missiles
launched by two U.S. naval ships hit nineteen targets in Baghdad, killing nine
civilians and wounding others. This strike was clearly in violation of
international law, and it
seems unlikely that this action was in “strict compliance” with “any
conventional understanding of international law”. In his efforts to weaken the
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Clinton signed the ‘Iraq Liberation Act’
into Law on 31st October 1998; instituting a police of regime change
in Iraq, Subsequently, for several years, the U.S. routinely bombed key defense
installations in Iraq and justified these attacks as responses to
“provocations” by the Iraqi armed forces on U.S. aircraft overflying their
nation.
In 1993, Clinton had announced that “containing the
hostile and dangerous government of Iran” would be the basis of his Middle–East
policy. In 1994, he had declared that Iran was “a state sponsor of terrorism”,
marking the first time that an American President has used those words.
In 1994, the Clinton administration lifted the Trade
embargo on Vietnam, and restored full diplomatic ties in July 1995; citing
progress on the Vietnam war’s POW / MIA issue and the market reforms
implemented by the Vietnam government from 1986 onward.
The Clinton administration’s policy of engagement with
China was based on “confronting China”, but not strongly enough to damage
relations between the two countries. In 1995-96, the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis
erupted between China and Taiwan. The upcoming Presidential elections in Taiwan
and the possibility of declaration of Taiwanese independence, caused concern in
China, which led to their conducting a series of missile tests of the coast of
Taiwan. Clinton responded by staging the biggest display of U.S. military might
in March 1996, and stationed numerous aircraft carrier groups near Taiwan.
Eventually, China declared the “missile tests” as completed and a cease fire
was declared.
It was the Indian nuclear tests of May
1998 that prompted a serious dialogue between India and the U.S. In the wake of
the tests, extensive bilateral discussions ensued and U.S. policymakers came to
pay far greater heed to India and its concerns. Toward the end of the second
Clinton administration, despite differences in some critical policy arenas,
most notably non-proliferation, the relationship had acquired meaningful
interaction.
On 11 September, 2001, al–Qaeda terrorists attacked the
World Trade Center in New York and the U.S. military headquarters (the
Pentagon) near Washington DC, ending a decade of economic prosperity. George
W. Bush was the President of USA when this surprise attack prompted
a paradigm shift in U.S. foreign policy. The focus on domestic prosperity was
replaced by unilateral action to combat the growing trend of Islamic
fundamentalist terrorism that originated in the Middle East. America embarked
on military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. The “Bush Doctrine” was
based on the views of the neoconservatives in his cabinet, where
multi-literalisms were ignored. The neoconservatives believed that since the
United States was the world’s lone ‘superpower’ in the early 2000s, it could
act unilaterally to establish a strong U.S. influence in world affairs. In the
wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the foreign policy was transformed into
a policy with an expeditionary outlook, with a narrow focus on terrorism and the
strong belief that the military and economic power of the U.S. was strong
enough to transform geographical regions and societies. As part of this
doctrine, the U.S. reserved the right to carry out preemptive military strikes
against nations known to sponsor terrorism. According to Bush, three nations; Iraq,
Iran and North Korea; that he defined as the “Axis of Evil”, posed the
greatest threat to global peace, due to their pursuit of weapons of mass
destruction. Bush also emphasized his new interventionist policy of spreading
democracy globally with the view that ‘the survival of liberty in USA
depends on the success of liberty in other countries”.
The U.S. led a NATO invasion of Afghanistan in October
2001, initiating the ‘Global War on Terror’, in what became the first
phase of the war. The main goals of the war were to defeat the Taliban, force
al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan and capture the leaders of al–Qaeda. In these
efforts, USA deployed 98,000 troops on-ground at its highest point in 2011.
Simultaneously, Bush improved relations with India,
Japan, South Korea, China and other countries of the ASEAN (Association of
South-East Asian Nations). Relations with India improved over common concerns
regarding the growth in Islamic terrorism, climate change and energy security.
Since 2004, both countries are pursuing a strategic partnership based on shared
values and convergent geopolitical interests.
The Bush administration faced a difficult task of
sustaining a strong relation with China in the context of China’s military and
economic progress. It was defined by Bush in his views that, “China would be
respected as a great power, unthreatened but not unchecked”. His
administration made efforts to assist the faster entry of China into the
international economic system, assist in China’s economic development and share
mutual economic benefits, and supported China’s entry into the WTO (World Trade
Organization).
Bush had identified North Korea as one of the three
states in the “axis of evil” in 2002. His administration’s policy was to
isolate North Korea from the world in an effort to force it to abandon its
nuclear ambitions. North Korea had developed its nuclear weapons capabilities
several years before the inauguration of George W. Bush as President of USA,
and earlier administrations had pursued a policy of rapprochement with North
Korea, offering economic assistance in return for an end to North Korea’s WMD
program. In contrast, Bush sought to isolate North Korea in the hope that its
regime would fall due to this isolation.
India’s pursuit of its nuclear weapons
program came into focus during Bush’s second term as President, and culminated
in the historic US–India civilian nuclear agreement of 2008. This accord
effectively ended one of the principal issues of contention in the
relationship and cleared a path for a robust strategic partnership. In the wake
of this agreement, and despite much hesitation on India’s part, the two
sides made fitful progress toward forging a strategic partnership.
Barack Hussein Obama was elected President of USA in 2009 and inherited
two wars (ones in Afghanistan and Iraq), and an economy in crisis. Other than
his long–term concern about climate change, Obama did not have a sweeping
‘Obama Doctrine’, and preferred to deal with situations as the arose on a
case-by-case basis.
An early opponent to his predecessor George W. Bush’s
decision to invade Iraq in 2003, he announced his plan to bring down troop
levels in Iraq to 50,000 by August 2010, and kept drawing back troops until
only 150 troops remained in Iraq by 2012.
Conversely, Obama was committed to increasing the US
military commitment in Afghanistan to prevent the extremist Taliban regime from
regaining power and allowing al–Qaeda to continue using that country as a base
of terrorist operations, and sent additional troops to Afghanistan, raising the
military presence there to 60,000 troops on an average.
However, Obama was convinced that a change in military
strategy was needed so that the Government of Afghanistan would be able to
defeat the Taliban on its own. In December 2009, he approved and additional
troops for the purpose of training of Afghan forces to independently fight the
Taliban, with the condition that U.S. forces must begin to withdraw from
Afghanistan by July 2011. Obama accomplished the disengagement of the American
active combat forces by 2014, with about 12,000 remaining to continue the campaign
to defeat the Taliban. His administration’s success in tracking down and
killing the al-Qaeda leader Osama bi Laden on 02nd May 2011, gave
Obama credibility in military matters.
The Obama administration claimed that their approach to
the ‘war on terror’ relied on multinational force and not unilateral actions,
and was focused on surgical air-strikes, rather than deployment of troops in
the conflict areas. This strategy failed in Libya, since the lack of troops on
ground deprived Obama of any means to control the local chaos after the killing
of the Libyan dictator Muamar al–Qaddafi. One harsh consequence was the attack
of radical mobs on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, resulting
in the killings of four U.S. officials, including that of the U.S. Ambassador
to Libya.
In Asia, the Obama administration established the “U.S–China
Strategic and Economic Dialogue” in April 2009, to
discuss a wide range of regional and global strategic and economic issues
between both countries. While the U.S and China have repeatedly clashed over
China’s claims in the South China Sea, the U.S. Pacific Command was put in the
forefront to strengthen military relationships in the region. In 2014, the U.S.
recognized Tibet as a part of China.
Relations with North Korea were
contentious due to its nuclear weapons program and threats of military action.
In May 2009, North Korea announced that it intended to terminate the 1953
armistice agreement that ended the Korean war; effectively restarting the 60-year-old
conflict and raising the threat alert in South Korea to just short of an actual
war. Obama was harshly criticized for failing to restrain or eliminate the
North Korean nuclear weapons and missile program, as it became steadily more
alarming to the U.S. Congress.
Obama was eager to consolidate
bi-lateral relations with India. His shift in the U.S. foreign policy is based
on the assessment of three issues of American national interests and India’s
role in achieving them, i.e. building strong bi-lateral cooperation in
security and defense sectors, deliver U.S. products and services to a
potentially huge export market and utilize India as a strategic pivot towards
Asia. Obama did succeed in strengthening defense ties, but failed to
accelerate U.S. exports into India and also failed to convince India of the
U.S. commitment towards its Asia pivot strategy. India’s regional territorial
concerns over its security took priority over the U.S. strategy.
During the presidency of Donald
Trump (2017 – 2021), his “America First” policy pursued U.S. nationalist
foreign policy goals that gave priority to bilateral relations over
multinational agreements. It was notorious for being unpredictable, for
reversals on prior international commitments, overturning diplomatic customs, pursuing
political and economic practices of brinkmanship with adversaries and ignoring
mutual interests with traditional allies. He adopted a policy of
non-intervention and isolation, and supported populist, authoritarian
governments, while his State Department officials pursued pro-democracy efforts
around the world.
The Trump administration withdrew from
many prior multinational commitments of the U.S. and urged NATO allies to
increase their burden sharing of protecting Europe. He initiated the 2019
Korean Peace process to resolve the Korea conflict and denuclearize the Korean
Peninsula, while withdrawing from the Iran Nuclear Deal. He oversaw the partial
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq / Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan, while
brokering the Doha Agreement with the Taliban to bring an end to the war
in Afghanistan. As part of this agreement, the U.S. agreed to the release of
5,000 Taliban members who were imprisoned by the Afghan government. [Some of
these ex-prisoners went on to join the 2021 Taliban offensive that defeated the
Afghanistan government].
He continued the U.S. war on terror
against the Islamic State and accomplished the successful elimination of its
leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October 2019. In January 2020, he ordered the
successful assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Iraq, using a
drone strike.
During the election campaign that
elected him to the presidency of the U.S., Trump had accused the People’s
Republic of China [mainland China] of currency manipulation. He pledged to act
in a “swift, robust and unequivocal” manner against Chinese piracy, counterfeit
American goods, and theft of U.S. intellectual property and trade secrets. In
December 2016 as president–elect, he accepted a congratulatory phone call from
the President of the Republic of China [Taiwan], which was the first such
contact by Taiwan with a U.S. President since 1979, which provoked China (PRC /
mainland) to lodge a stern diplomatic protest. Trump responded that he was not
bound by the U.S. ‘one China policy’ and considered it open to negotiation. However,
in February 2017, Trump reaffirmed his commitment to the one-China policy in a
telephone conversation with PRC General Secretary Xi Jinping.
Relations between the two countries
deteriorated in 2018 and 2019 when President Trump launched a trade war against
China, by setting tariffs and other trade barriers on China with the objective
of forcing it to make changes in what the U.S. said were unfair trade practices
and intellectual property theft. In response, the Chinese accused Trump of
engaging in protectionist policies, and retaliated by raising tariff on
American goods ranging from alcohol to clothing, and to liquefied natural gas
(LNG). This trade war impacted the economies of both countries. In the U.S. it
led to higher cost for manufacturers, higher prices for customers and financial
difficulties for the agricultural sector. In China, it led to a slowdown of industrial
and economic growth.
The relations further deteriorated
when Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in
November 2019, to impose sanctions against China (PRC / mainland) and officials
in Hong Kong who were considered responsible for human rights abuses there. In
June 2020, Trump signed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which
authorized the imposition of American sanctions on Chinese government officials
responsible for the detention camps holding Uyghur Muslims in China. In July
2020, Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, that sanctioned Chinese
officials, and ended Hong Kong’s preferential treatment by the U.S.
On 22nd July 2020, the U.S.
government ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston. In
retaliation, on 24th July, China ordered the closure of the American
consulate in Chengdu. Boston College political scientist Robert S. Ross
commented that the Trump "administration would like to fully decouple
from China. No trade, no cultural exchanges, no political exchanges, no
cooperation on anything that resembles common interests."
Donald Trump shared favorable and
trusted relations with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed
desire for a closer alliance with India. In June 2017, the two leaders met at
the White House in the U.S. capital, Washington D.C., and reaffirmed their
commitment to a strong partnership between the two countries, specifically in
the areas of defense, counter-terrorism and maritime security.
Both countries have similar approaches
to other issues. The Trump administration renamed its Pacific Command as
INDOPACOM to reinforce its commitment for closer military ties with India. The
U.S. criticism of China’s One-Belt-One-Road policy reflects India’s concerns that
no country can accept a project that ignores the core concerns on sovereignty
and territorial integrity, and both share the desire for better security
cooperation with Japan, Australia and Vietnam.
In 2018, the U.S. declared that India is
eligible to purchase license-free space and defense technology under the ‘Strategic
Trade Authorization’. The long-standing gap between the U.S. and India on
the Pakistan policy had also converged considerably, leading to the Trump
administration cutting aid to Pakistan, citing the latter’s failure to act
against terrorists.
However, there were irritants in the
bi-lateral relations as well. India’s eligibility for the ‘Generalized System
of Preferences’ program that permits certain products to enter the U.S.
duty-free was put under review, and the U.S. policy on immigration, specially
related to the H1B and H4 visas have impacted negatively on the Indian
sentiment.
Joseph “Joe” Biden
took office as the President of USA on 20th January 2021. His foreign policy emphasizes repairing alliances, which Biden claims have been damaged under the
Trump administration, and returning the U.S. to a ‘position of trusted
leadership’. His administration has focused on international cooperation to
combat the Covid-19 pandemic and strengthen U.S. defense against foreign
sponsored cyber-attacks and cyber-espionage.
In early February 2021, the U.S.
Congress panel on Afghanistan recommended that the Biden administration slow
down the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and keep troops in-country
after the May 01 deadline set by the 2020 Doha Agreement between the U.S. and
Taliban. The panel warned against a complete U.S. military withdrawal because
the Taliban had not fully complied with their obligations under the agreement,
and that it would lead to resurgence of insurgency, an increase in terrorist
threats and a possibility of an Afghan civil war. On 13th April 2021,
the Biden administration announced that the 2,500 troops that remained in
Afghanistan would be withdrawn by 11th September, 2021, and Biden
personally stated that "The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban
overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely."
On 15th August, the Afghan government collapsed under the onslaught
of the Taliban, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, leaving
Afghanistan in full control of most of Afghanistan.
President Joe Biden and India’s Prime
Minister Narendra Modi are committed to close cooperation on climate change and
promoting a free and open Indo–Pacific region and have agreed that the rule of
law and democratic process must be upheld in India’s region. In response to the
security issues posed by China, both leaders agree to "support freedom
of navigation, territorial integrity, and a stronger regional architecture
through the Quad initiative".
PART – II : Overview
of U.S foreign policy.
The official objectives of the U.S.
foreign policy are "to build and sustain a more democratic, secure, and
prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international
community". Additionally, it has the goals of controlled exports,
non-proliferation of nuclear technology, fostering commercial interaction with
other nations, and international commodity agreements.
The U.S. President decides on all
foreign policy, which is implemented by the U.S. State Department and allied
agencies. However, treaties signed by the President are valid only when they
are ratified by at least two-thirds of the U.S. Senate. The Congress approves
the President’s nominees for the position of U.S. Ambassadors to various
countries and international organizations, and has the power to declare war.
U.S. foreign policy also includes covert
actions to topple foreign governments that have been opposed to America. There
are seven confirmed cases where the U.S., acting principally through its spy
agencies, have covertly assisted in the overthrow of governments in Iran
(1953), Guatemala (1954), Congo (1960), Dominican Republic (1961), South
Vietnam (1963), Brazil (1964) and Chile (1973). The U.S. has intervened and
influenced 81 elections in foreign countries between 1946 and 2000.
U.S. foreign policy is influenced by efforts to
control the import of illicit drugs into America. This is especially true in
Latin America which is the focus of the U.S. ‘War on Drugs’. Those efforts date
back to at least 1880, when the U.S. and China completed an agreement that
prohibited the shipment of opium between the two countries.
Critics have cited instances where the
U.S. has overthrown communist (leftist) governments in foreign countries, its
continued support for Israel since its inception, its human rights abuses and
violations of international laws. They charge U.S. presidents of using
democracy to justify military intervention abroad. The U.S. has faced
condemnation for supporting dictators who systematically violate human rights,
for facilitating and supporting state terrorism in lower income countries
during the Cold War, and for conducting political assassinations, political
repression and state sponsored terror in the southern most areas of South
America.
Human Rights organizations have been
critical of U.S. air-strikes and targeted killings using drones (an unmanned
aerial combat vehicle) which have resulted in collateral damage to civilian
populations. From dropping 26,000 bombs on seven countries (Syria, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan) in a single year (2016) to
accusations of complicity in war crimes for supporting the Saudi Arabia led
intervention into the Yemen Civil War, leading to infectious diseases outbreaks
and starvation of the general population in Yemen; the U.S. has been accused
regularly of being the biggest threat to world peace, since the U.S. attempts
to export democracy have been negligible and mostly a failure.
The U.S. government torture program
since 9/11 has been "breath-taking" in its scope, according to the
detailed report submitted to the United Nations Committee Against Torture
by the International Human Rights Clinic. The U.S. carried out its torture
program in the U.S. Military Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and secretly in 54
other countries, and the program involved two U.S. administrations: the Bush
Administration which designed, implemented and authorized the torture program,
and the Obama Administration which covered it up and obstructed justice by
failing to prosecute U.S. officials who designed and implemented the torture
programs.
The U.S. is a signatory to the United
Nations Convention against Torture, and at the time of signing it on 18th
April 1988; had declared that “The Government of the United States of
America reserves the right to communicate, upon ratification, such
reservations, interpretive understandings, or declarations as are deemed
necessary” and that “nothing in this Convention requires or authorizes
legislation, or other action, by the United States of America prohibited by the
Constitution of the United States as interpreted by the United States”.
In reality, in the policy of
transferring military detainees to Iraqi control, the U.S. appears to have knowingly
violated the Convention Against Torture. The Convention proscribes
signatory states from transferring a detainee to other countries "where
there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being
subjected to torture." The U.S. had received reports of more than a
thousand allegations, many of them substantiated by medical evidence, of
torture in Iraqi jails. Yet U.S. authorities transferred thousands of prisoners
to Iraqi custody, including almost 2,000 who were transferred to the Iraqi
government in 2010.
PART – III : Conclusion.
The United States of America has consistently followed
a foreign policy based on its own self–interests; and willing and knowingly
violates the principles of humanity, integrity and the right to free-will of
people of other nations. Using various pretexts; from that of ‘exporting
democracy’ to ‘war-on-terror’, the U.S. has been destabilizing various parts of
the world since the end of World War II, and till the present. Its foreign
policy is based on the single point of exerting its opinions on the world
through war, coercion and deceit, with a total disregard for human rights of
non-American populations and for the sufferings caused by their self–serving
policies.
Compiled by:
Sardar Sanjay Matkar
October 2021
References / Citations
1.
Council for foreign relations (CFR) https://www.cfr.org/us-foreign-policy
2.
U.S. State Department https://www.state.gov/a-foreign-policy-for-the-american-people/
3.
U.S. Foreign Policy https://www.foreignaffairs.com/topics/us-foreign-policy
4.
Chatham House https://www.chathamhouse.org/topics/us-foreign-policy
5.
The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/foreign-policy/
6.
The Brookings Institute https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/03/04/the-mess-in-afghanistan/
Charlie Company https://charliecompany.org/2012/08/31/when-did-the-vietnam-war-start-and-end/
