United We Stand; Divided We Fall Why Appropriate U.S. Intervention in Foreign Policy is a Necessity for Global Peace
In recent times it has become clear that trust of the United States’ ability to foster and produce peace is at an all-time low. In fact, it has recently been reported by The New York Post that a Gallup poll which analyzed data collected from 66,000 people polled in 65 countries that the U.S. is considered to be more threatening to peace efforts than Pakistan, Iran, and China combined, “Of the 66,000 people polled, just under a quarter named Uncle Sam as the greatest threat to world peace,” (New York Post, 2014). While this data sheds a frightening light upon the ...view middle of the document...
Overall it has been noted that without the presence of the U.S. military within Asia that tensions amongst Asian nations would lead to catastrophic events,
“The situation underscores why the U.S. needs to maintain a robust naval and air force presence in Asia: because it keeps all the regional powers — rising, declining or otherwise — from escalating a crisis into a conflagration. Treaties and trade help ameliorate the jagged regional political dynamics, but American hard power on the seas and in the air is what keeps tensions from rising to a fever pitch,” (Peritz, 2013).
In addition to this modern example of the need for the United States’ powerful influence to maintain peace in Asia, there are historical ones as well. Both the Korean War, as well as the Australian, New Zealand, and United States Security Treaty (ANZUS) show how U.S. military and policy intervention within foreign affairs helped to maintain global peace.
The Korean conflict (1950-1953) saw the need for further intervention in order for the country of Korea to function. Prior to WWII Korea had been a Japanese territory and as part of post-war agreements it had been mandated that Japanese territories would defer back to their prior rule. However, conflicting viewpoints on the part of Korean nationalists soon led to violence and need for global interventions. The U.S. lent the most military forces to the Korean conflict (The U.S. Department of State, 2014). While the country split and remained separated the U.S. managed to protect and enforce NATO interests and defended the still crippled Japan from attack. Even so it was a bittersweet victory due to the permanent separation of North and South Korea. However, by supporting South Korean interests the U.S. ensured that a peaceful nationalist South Korea came to be, rather than merging it with the greatly despaired and oppressed North Korean communist forces. In addition, overall U.S. defense measures in Asia were strengthened which have allowed the U.S. to aid Asia in its peace maintaining endeavors.
ANZUS is a peace policy that was adopted amongst the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia as a regional peacekeeping measure. ANZUS was never truly expanded upon, however it lead to the development of further important peacekeeping documents,
“Although ANZUS was never expanded, the 1954 creation of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) included all of the ANZUS powers, as well as Britain, France, and several other Asian powers, eliminating the impetus to change the foundation of the ANZUS Treaty. Over the course of the decades that followed the signing of the ANZUS Treaty, the members met annually to discuss their shared interests and concerns,” (U.S. Department of State, 2014).
The power held by the U.S. as a global superpower can be directly seen in its important involvement within many peacekeeping and peace promoting treaties and documents such as ANZUS and SEATO. In addition ANZUS was basically absorbed into...
