The broad area of policy and activities involving a nation’s relations with other countries, including diplomatic and economic interactions and military intervention. Foreign policy is interdependent and global, with every action and interaction affecting all other actors in the world.
Foreign policy is about how a nation’s leaders shape the world around it. It involves the use of force, both economic and military, in a way that protects and promotes national interests and values. It can include influencing international institutions and agreements, promoting democracy and human rights, resolving regional conflicts, and engaging with emerging economies and technologies.
After winning the Cold War, American foreign policy created new institutions to protect and expand freedom, including NATO and the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, and the Bretton Woods monetary system and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to foster free trade. These institutions and agreements preserved and extended American power, but in a way that benefited all who participated.
Today, despite globalization, America’s unquestioned power continues to hold sway in the world, but it can be dangerously misdirected. Unless used deftly, our military and economic superiority can breed resentment, even among allies.
A new era calls for new strategies, as the world faces rising threats of global democratic backsliding and authoritarianism, global poverty and hunger, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, and the spread of hate speech and new weapons of destruction. It is time to rebuild and reimagine our diplomacy.