The Cold War dominated US foreign policy from post-WWII to the fall of the Soviet Union. From the 1940s to 1991, most world affairs were massively dominated by ideological warfare pitting the US, the Soviet Union and each of their partners (Fischer, 2000). The US opted to seek partners to consolidate its power in exchange for military and foreign economic aid in addition to diplomatic support. During this time, the cold war was significantly characterized by the absence of actual global war but was defined by extensive regional proxy wars that took place between most of the client states of the US and the Soviet Union. The aftermath of the cold war has continued to make a huge impact on various world affairs and has substantially dominated most of the US foreign policy.
In the years shortly before the termination of the Soviet Union, it had been established that cold war was unipolar further because the US was the acclaimed sole superpower (Litwak, 2000). It is worth noting that the Cold War greatly influenced the role played by the US role in the post-World II era. Further, the Cold War is considered to have marked the climax of peacetime military-industrial complexes within the US. These military-industrial complexes have been shown to have had a greater influence in shaping global peace and foreign policy. The new world order as a concept, was established to define world power immediately after the Cold War.
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The US intervened expanded its foreign intervention policy, but which it now disguised under secrets operations. During Cold War era, the objective of US foreign policies was to limit the influence of any ideologies advanced by the Soviet Union. The US was as a result of this involved in the Korean War, Vietnam War, Yom Kippur War, and the Six Day War, all of which were fought to protect its sphere of ideological influence (Fischer, 2000). In the year 1947, the US established frameworks for the Economic revival of its European allies, most of which it considered shaky to the extent that they allowed room that could be manipulated to meet communist ends. One of the ambitious economic recovery programs that were developed was the Marshall Plan, and it was specifically aimed at restoring Europe’s prosperity and productivity hence eliminating a possible inroad for communism. Further, in 1949, the US took a decision to join another 11 states, forming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a mutual defense pact and also as a diplomatic initiative. It was pledged that military aggression against one signatory state, equally would suggest aggression against the rest of NATO member states. In the year, 1949 the US realized that the Soviet Union had exploded an atomic bomb in breach of international atomic energy proliferation frameworks. This was an open indication of the challenges posed against the containment doctrine; therefore, to bolster this containment policy, NSC-68 was proposed in 1950 with the aim of strengthening the state’s alliance and in an effort to encourage American countermeasures against Soviet hegemony (Litwak, 2000).
In conclusion, after World War II, US foreign policy failed to meet the established objective of greater world peace and should be considered counterproductive. For instance, it has been determined that the American government applied excessive force as alternative for diplomacy in the years after the Second World War According to Fischer (2000), Anti-communism was thus identified as the core principle to help in guiding the foreign policy during the Cold War, but the policies have continued to make huge impacts even after the collapse of the Soviet Union. US foreign policy in Europe, especially during the Cold War, can considered to have been highly successful. In the year 2004, influenced by the aspects of Cold War, European security strategy was drafted by Javier Solana, and this was precisely based on the concept of effective multilateralism in addition to the utilization of the international agencies.
References
Fischer, B. A. (2000). The Reagan reversal: Foreign policy and the end of the Cold War . University of Missouri Press.
Litwak, R. (2000). Rogue states and US foreign policy: containment after the Cold War . Woodrow Wilson Center Press.
