Do Americans Care About Foreign Policy Essay

Submitted By Manuelinski
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Do Americans Care About Foreign Policy? Although it is very difficult to know whether Americans know enough about foreign affairs, it can be said that Americans still feel detached from foreign issues unless US interests are immediately threatened. The last three years there has been an increasing worry regarding nuclear capability of Iran since most people believe it will be used as a weapon against the West, rather than the peaceful purposes the Iranian regime claims it is for. Secondly, the growing economic influence of China poses risks for American businesses that continue to outsource employments. China, believed to manipulate currency, also holds a large amount of the US debt that for the moment will not be repaid anytime soon (Smith, 2011). And thirdly, Americans from both parties still support the special alliance the United States has with Israel, and any proposal of cutting down and any attempt of snubbing the Israelis result in bipartisan repudiation (Harris, 2011). Evidently, these three issues all affect the United States directly and thus are the issues being discussed in the GOP primary and soon at the general election. The most pressing issue, I would argue, is Iran’s increasing hostility towards any attempts of the West of stopping their nuclear ambitions. The US and Europe have enacted harsh sanctions, however Iran continues its ambition. The International Atomic Energy Agency recently said that it is worried that it is indeed likely that the Iranians are developing weapons, rather than nuclear energy for domestic use (Dahl, 2012). The month of February was marked with tensions and many reports that the Israelis were getting ready for a preemptive strike on Iran to avoid a warhead launch (Hager, 2012). Domestically, many voices in the defense and national security community debated on the prospect of the United States joining the preemptive strike. Some endorsed the idea that the US should only enter if there is a multilateral action, others said the US should single-handedly disarm Iran, and others rejected the whole idea of a third conflict (Hager, 2012). President Obama has advised in the past that diplomacy is the best route, but during the AIPAC conference in early March he said he would commit militarily to protect Israel (Hager, 2012). The second issue at hand for the American people is China. China currently holds a large percentage of our debt and has experienced an unprecedented level of economic growth, in part by manipulating currency. The growing market of China has lured many American businesses to move production from the US to China because of the cheap labor and manufacturing costs. This has caused some anger domestically from labor unions who oppose any type of outsourcing and from economic conservatives who generally dislike the economic policies that are causing businesses to leave the country, including the corporate tax rates and government red tape. The third salient issue involves United States relations with Israel. Israel’s geopolitical strategic position in the Middle East allows the US to preserve a somewhat stable region. More than ever, I believe, has the rhetoric towards supporting Israel has escalated due in part increasing instability in the region with the uprisings and an ever hostile Iran. A majority of Americans believe the relation with Israel
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