International Policy Trade-Offs

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the current policy of preemptive strikes is an issue with significant trade offs involved for both unilateral and multilateral involvement. The problem with acting in a unilateral fashion is that the acting nation is held solely responsible for the outcome and may be seen as a rogue state by the other nations of the world, thus causing problems immediately with global backlash. The author points out that there are two theories: Liberalism, which argues that, while states may be self-interested and may be working for themselves, in the end, they are also working for the greater good, and constructivism, which argues against a single state blindly trying to force its political structure on all other nations in the name of freedom. The paper relates that similar tough issues involve the private and public clashes regarding environmental protection and immigration laws. These are areas in which a variety of trade offs exist, complicating foreign and domestic relationships.

From the Paper:

"There is any number of debates surrounding national security. For example, there is an obvious debate plastered all over campuses and in the media regarding whether or not it is right to use war to prevent potential terrorist attacks. Some say that the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan will merely create environments conducive to the formations of disillusioned terrorist cells. Further debates surround the inevitable loss of civil rights associated with nationwide crack downs on suspicious anti-American sentiment and activity. Perhaps the most interesting debate in terms of international policy, however, is that surrounding the importance of multilateral support for national security measures. For the past century, America has generally operated on a multilateral level militarily. Since the founding of the U.N., international opinion has generally held that for conflict to be legitimate, a strong global support must exist behind it. For example, in the first Gulf War, President Bush Sr. let a powerful multilateral force to liberate Kuwait. Today, President Bush Jr. has adopted a far more unilateral strategy, accepting allies where they come in handy but reiterating that they are not entirely necessary. Evidence of this is found both in theory and in action."

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