US Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy from 1900 through today

Michael Flynn

Professor

Department of Political Science

011C Calvin Hall

meflynn@ksu.edu

2026-09-10

Lecture Overview

1. Early 20th Century foreign policy

2. Transition from World War II to the Cold War

3. The emerging divide between West and East

4. American hegemony and the emerging global orders

5. Post-Cold War foreign policy

Key Questions

1. How did the events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries shape the development of the Cold War?

2. Who were some of the key players involved in shaping US foreign policy during the early Cold War years?

3. What were the key features of the US-led global order that emerges after World War II?

4. How did the three time periods compare to one another? What were some of the central concerns in foreign policymaking?

Early 20th Century Foreign Policy

Early 20th Century Foreign Policy

Let’s start in the 1890s

• Construction of battleship fleet

• US begins projecting power outwards

• Spanish-American War of 1898

  • Cuba/Guantanamo Bay
  • Puerto Rico
  • Philippines
  • Guam
  • Annexation of Hawaii
  • Acquisition of other territories as indirect consequence (Naval Station Tutuila/American Samoa)

Notes

• US focused initially on race to acquire new territories in Asia-Pacific
• This didn’t last too long.
• Hawaii officially annexed in July of 1898, partly due to more general strategic position in Pacific and partly due to fears that a rising Japan would take it.

Early 20th Century Foreign Policy

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Dollar Diplomacy and Intervention

• The US begins to more actively enforce the Monroe Doctrine in Western Hemisphere (Roosevelt Corollary)

• Often this involved using military intervention to ensure financial stability

“The Big Stick in the Caribbean Sea” A cartoon depicting President Theodore Roosevelt leading a string of battleships around to Caribbean islands to collect debt payments.

Notes

• Roosevelt Corollary: Roosevelt said the US would intervene “as a last resort” to ensure Latin American countries upheld their financial and debt obligations or do anything to invite European intervention in the Western Hemisphere.

• US intervened in Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, and Haiti. Marines went in, customs hhouses seized, teams of economists would help to put countries on a gold standard.

Early 20th Century Foreign Policy

World War I

United States enters the war in 1917

• Initially neutral

• German submarine warfare targets American merchant shipping

• Sinking of the Lusitania

• Stalemate in Europe as war drags on

Early 20th Century Foreign Policy

Consequences of the war:

• Breakdown of old imperial powers
• Austo-Hungarian Empire collapses
• Ottoman Empire collapses
• German Empire defeated
• Creation of several new states
• Nationalism as a driving force in European politics
• Partition of Middle East
• Russian Revolution
• US rejects global leadership role
• New forms of warfare emerge
• League of Nations created
• Reparations imposed on Germany
• Turkey stripped of territory, resources

Early 20th Century Foreign Policy

Treaty of Versailles

• Often viewed as unfair/unreasonable

• France aimed to punish Germany

• Severe reparations imposed on Germany

• Industrial resources seized

• US Senate rejects Treaty of Versailles Twice

League of Nations:

• Viewed as a contrast to previous international orders

• Provides for collective security

• Emphasizes self-determination

• Free trade

US and League - President Wilson (a Democrat) supports a more international role for US

• Many Republicans oppose the League and the treaty as written (The Irreconcilables)

• But some prominent Republicans support it (Henry Stimson)

• Debates over US involvement continue throughout the 1920s

• Senate Republicans repeatedly object to participating in League organizations like the International Court of Justice.

Henry Cabot Lodge

Henry Stimson

Early 20th Century Foreign Policy

Inter-War Period

• The Interwar period falls between 1919 and 1940 (-ish)

• Heavy emphasis on commercial engagement (until 1929, that is)

• Also an emphasis on arms control conferences and cooperation (Washington and London Naval conferences)

• But little engagement with multilateral institutions and subsidiary organizations of the League of Nations

Notes

• Washington Naval Conference in 1922: AKA Five Power Treaty. Signed to prevent arms buildup and limit naval construction. Concerns that they would repeat the policies of the early 1900s before WWI.

• London Naval Conference in 1930: Expanded upon the Washington conference.

• Both focused on limiting the number of ships and the total tonnage of ships.

Early 20th Century Foreign Policy

Inter-War Period: Germany

• Germany recovering from initial economic woes, but hit hard by the depression

• Radical political parties benefit from economic crisis

• Hitler rises to power in 1933

• Germany, Italy, and Japan sign a series of treaties between 1936 and 1937

• March 1938 Germany annexes Austria by “request”

• September 1938 Germany annexes Sudentenland (part of Czechoslovakia)

Early 20th Century Foreign Policy

Inter-War Period: Steps to war in Europe

• September 3, 1939 Germany invades Poland

• British and French declare war by day’s end

• By July 1940 France falls to Germany forces

• Battle of Britain begins in August 1940

Early 20th Century Foreign Policy

Inter-War Period: Japan and Asia-Pacific

• Japanese military occupied Manchuria in 1931

• Extends control of China through early 1940s

• Japanese seeking to secure access to materials like oil and rubber

• Expansion brings Japan into conflict with Western powers throughout the Pacific

Japanese imports of raw materials as percentage of consumption

Resource	Percent
Steel	40%
Nickel	100%
Aluminum	60%
Iron Ore	85%
Oil	80%
Note: Data obtained from John Keegan. The Second World War.

Early 20th Century Foreign Policy

The US in the 1930s

• US resists-ish steps to mobilize for war

• Congress passes several Neutrality Acts 1935-1939

• December 7, 1941 Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor naval base

• December 8, 1941 Japanese begin bombing US presence in the Philippines

• Congress gradually loosens restritions

  • Cash and Carry
  • Destroyers for bases
  • Lend-Lease

Notes

• Neutrality Acts ban the export of weapons to belligerent nations.

• They also ban loans to countries fighting in a war

• Neutrality Act of 1937 loosened restrictions slightly and allowed for cash and carry. This was a concession to FDR who sought to aid the allies against Germany, Italy, and Spain. Cash and Carry allowed sales to belligerents provided they paid up front and transported goods themselves.

• September 1940 Destroyers for bases granted England 50 destroyers provided the US gained land rights in British territories

• March 1941 Lend-Lease Act allowed US to “lend” war materials to nations. Nobody really expected to get stuff back.

From World War to Cold War

From World Wars to Cold War

• President Roosevelt dies April 12, 1945.

• President Truman takes office and is informed of the Manhattan Project

• May 8, 1945: Nazi Germany surrenders to allies

• The war in the Pacific carries on

• Truman didn’t know about Manhattan Project. Had several run-ins with Secretary of War Henry Stimson when he was in the Senate. Truman was trying to hunt down wasteful programs.

From World War to Cold War

Japan and the atomic bomb

• Invasion?

• Demonstration?

• Bombing?

Background

• Many argued invasion would be too costly.
• Debate over how best to end war. Three options presented.
• Arsenal initially limited, so demonstration would waste a valuable weapon.
• Also a risk it wouldn’t work if demonstrated.
• The decision to use the bomb not just about US and Japan. Also motivated by USSR. US wanted to end the war quickly to avoid Soviet interference in Pacific.

From World War to Cold War

Henry Stimson

• Secretary of War under Roosevelt and Truman

• Opposes calls for demonstration of atomic weapons

• Influential in selecting targets

• Previously served as Secretary of War under Howard Taft, and Secretary of State under Herbert Hoover
• Governor-General of Philippines
• Highly influential in shaping US policy during WWII
• Specifically advocated for using nuclear weapons, but opposed targeting sites that were culturally significant. Got Kyoto knocked off the list of potential targets.
• Also suggested sharing nuclear technology with USSR as a means of deflating post-war tensions.

From World War to Cold War

Decision is made to use the bombs

• Hiroshima bombed on August 6, 1945

• Nagasaki bombed on August 9, 1945

• Japan surrenders on August 14, 1945

To right: Replica of “Fat Man”, bomb dropped on Nagasaki

The Emerging Divide

The Emerging Divide

Tensions between the US and USSR go back long before World War II

• Longstanding ideological opposition to communism

• Soviet skepticism of Western intentions during war (the second front)

• Soviets want secure borders in Europe

US long opposed to communism.

• Long history of government action against communists domestically
• US troops invaded Russia and attempted to reverse the Russian Revolution in 1917
• The second front. Soviets thought US and UK would wait and let USSR and Germany bleed to death.
• Tehran conference: Soviets long pushed for second front to take pressure off them in East. They agree to press Germans to take pressure off Allied campaign in France.
• Soviets also occupying territory in the East as they move into Germany. Incredibly brutal. Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast has good info on this. Lots of murder and rape.
• 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact/Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: Germany and USSR divvy up Eastern Europe.
• 1944 Warsaw uprising. Soviets out outskirts of town but let Germans massacre Poles.

The Emerging Divide

Key post-war events

• Soviets absorb occupied territories, which become the Warsaw Pact States

• British begin cutting aid to Greece and Turkey in 1946

• Soviets making claims on territory in Iran and Turkey

Soviets occupy territory and solidify control.

• British secretly announces to the US in 1946 that it an no longer sustain aid to Greece and Turkey. Greece is currently fghting a civil war, with communist forces on one side.
• Greece holds cultural signifcance to US
• Stalin also attempting to bully US into making concessions in Iran and Turkey.
• Stalin wants oil concessions and access to warm water ports.
• Iran issue taken to Security Council in 1946. The first serious issue brought before the body. Stalin eventually withdrew.

Percentages Agreement

• Fourth Moscow Conference of 1944
• Text: Romania, Greece, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Bulgaria
• Roosevelt’s representative not included in these meetings between Churchill and Stalin. FDR protests.
• Churchill demands British sphere in Greece. This comes back to bite them in 1947 when they can no longer support Greeks.

Shows allied occupation zones

• Cream areas are annexed by Poland and USSR, respectively.
• Cream area to left was effectively control by France (Saar Protectorate) but was reintegrated into Germany in 1957.

The Emerging Divide

The Truman Doctrine

• First outlined in President Truman’s March 1947 speech before Congress

• Promises to support free peoples resisting tyrannical governments

• Also lays foundations for foreign aid programs by calling for assistance to Greece and Turkey

• To right: President Harry Truman

Truman Doctrine

• Direct reaction to events in Greece and Turkey
• FDR seemed more optimistic regarding cooperation with Russa. Truman more skeptical.
• “Must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures…We must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. (as quoted in Gaddis 2007, 31)”
• Lays the foundations for economic and military aid programs, which haven’t existed before.

The Emerging Divide

The Marshall Plan

• General George Marshall, Secretary of State under President Truman

• June 1947: Delivered Harvard’s commencement speech. The “opening shot” of the Marshall Plan

• Catalyst for what would become the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

• To right: General George C. Marshall

Marshall Plan

• Builds off of the Truman doctrine
• Europe’s economy is in ruins. Hunger and poverty viewed as greater threats than direct Soviet intervention.
• Calls for massive economic assistance to help rebuild Europe (European Recovery Program).
• Excerpt from Marshall’s speech: “Aside from the demoralizing effect on the world at large and the possibilities of disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of the people concerned, the consequences to the economy of the United States should be apparent to all. It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist. Such assistance, I am convinced, must not be on a piece- meal basis as various crises develop. Any assistance that this Government may render in the future should provide a cure rather than a mere palliative. Any government that is willing to assist in the task of recovery will find full co-operation I am sure, on the part of the United States Government. Any government which maneuvers to block the recovery of other countries cannot expect help from us. Furthermore, governments, political parties, or groups which seek to perpetuate human misery in order to profit therefrom politically or otherwise will encounter the opposition of the United States.” OECD Marshall Plan Speech.
• Soviets invited to partake. They refused.

The Emerging Divide

George F. Kennan

• Director of Policy Planning, US State Department, Ambassador to the USSR

• Father of containment doctrine

• Author of the “Long Telegram” and the infamous “X Article” in Foreign Affairs

• Emphasis on non-military resistance to Soviet expansion

George Kennan

• Kennan had been a foreign service officer for years.
• In 1946—Long telegram was about 8,000 words. Ridiculous considering model of telegraphic delivery.
• Early skeptic of the US’ ability to cooperate with the Soviets
• Containment emphasized less militarized resistance to USSR.
• Kennan argued that Soviet rulers justified their rule on the idea that the West was trying to destroy the USSR/Russian people. The use of military force to counter them would only play into their narrative, helping to justify the Soviet regime’s harsh domestic policies.
• Kennan opposed NATO for this reason. He believed the formation of an alliance excluding the USSR would serve as the proof Soviet leaders needed

The Emerging Divide

Paul Nitze

• Contemporary of George Kennan

• Second Director of Policy Planning

• Primary author of NSC–68

• Supported a more militant version of Kennan’s containment strategy

Paul Nitze

• One of the principal authors of NSC-68
• Set out a vision of a more militarized approach to containment
• Kennan opposed this view.

The Emerging Divide

Later events:

• Communist coup in Czechoslovakia (1948)

• Yugoslav–Soviet split (1948)

• Communist victory in China (1949)

• USSR detonates atomic bomb (1949)

• Chinese-Soviet Alliance (1950)

• Korean War (1950–1953)

• Communist parties gain strength in Europe after WWII

Other events pave the way for the cold war:

• 1948: Stalin approves communist coup in Czechoslovakia. Had retained democratic government after the war. Czech foreign minister found dead on the ground.Suspicions that communists pushed him.
• 1948: Tito splits with Stalin. US begins giving aid to Tito’s regime. Dean Acheson famously says “he might be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.”
• Communist Chinese win Civil War in 1949. Nationalists retreat to Taiwan
• Chinese and Soviets form alliance in 1950. Perpetuates idea that there is a monolithic transnational communism bloc
• Korean War. Reinforced idea that USSR would use force to advance communism around the world.
• Economic devastation after WWI also leads to rise in support for communist parties. US worries that communists will gain power through legitimate electoral channels, and will be subservient to USSR.

American Hegemony

American Hegemony

What is hegemony?

Hegemony is a preponderance of global power

Note that this means a hegemonic power doesn’t get everything it wants. But more power helps in bargaining processes.

American Hegemony

US emerges from World War II with unparalleled economic and military power

Europe, not so much

US foreign policy focuses on three goals:

1. Checking Soviet expansion

2. Promoting recovery of war-torn areas

3. Promoting greater global integration

Goal of promoting integration is a reaction to World War I and Western liberal political thought (e.g. Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, etc.)

American Hegemony

US embarks on a massive order-building project

• The emergent order is often referred to as a “liberal hegemonic” order, or as “liberal internationalism”

• Three central pillars

  • Security

  • Diplomacy and governance

  • Economic

Initial Alternatives

• Talk about the origins of liberal here. Not liberal as in politically liberal.
• Points to classical liberalism
• Two main pillars are in economic and security affairs.
• Also talk about the idea that earlier visions of post-war environment looked different
  • FDR’s Four Policemen: US, England, USSR, and China (Also members of UN Security Council). Emphasized leadership of great powers in spheres of influence
  • US initially opposed to greater military involvement, but the situation eventually required it, and Europeans requested it. FDR told stalin troops would be out of Europe within 2 years.

American Hegemony

What does a liberal internationalist/hegemonic order look like?

• It emphasized a few key concepts

• US leadership (with constraints)

• Primacy of a rules-based system of global governance

• Multilateral cooperation and in economic and security affairs

Examples of US leadership and constraints

• US must abide by system it sets up
• John Ikenberry argues that the US had to constrain its behavior to enjoy the long-term benefits of the order it was building.
  • If it did whatever it wanted it would provoke a backlash and would collapse immediately.
  • Getting buy-in and legitimacy was important
• Rules-based system in contrast to pure balance of power that dominated before. Rules more formally outlined/defined.

American Hegemony

Security affairs:

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

• Central Treaty Organization (CENTO)

• United Nations (UN)

• Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)

• US leaders insisted Europeans had to take the lead in forming NATO
• US has to be asked to join partly to secure domestic support.

American Hegemony

Diplomatic affairs:

• Establish standards and principles to govern the post-War world

• Provide forum for dispute resolution between states

• Determine the fate of colonial territories and societies

American Hegemony

Diplomatic affairs:

• United Nations (UN)

  • International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

  • World Health Organization

  • United Nations Human Rights Council

Notes:

• The idea here was to establish greater coordination between countries
• Resolve problems before they emerged, and do so peacefully
• Coordinate to facilitate greater interactions in other spaces (e.g. economic)

American Hegemony

Economic affairs:

• Promote greater economic integration among all states

• Remove barriers to trade and investment

• Reaction to interwar period and Great Depression and move to autarky

Notes on economic affairs

• Promoting greater economic integration is a reaction to the Great Depression.
• Policymakers believed that the move to autarky caused WWII.
• What do we mean? Lower tariff barriers is the big thing. Lowering taxes on imports. Think Smoot Hawley Tariff.
• Also inspired by classical liberal thinking. Roosevelt and Truman administrations are filled with people from the Northeastern business and banking sectors. They very much buy into the idea that commerce can create peace.
• They also stand to benefit economically. European economies are in ruins, and the US is the only advanced industrial economy running at full steam. They canstand to gain a lot by getting other states to lower trade barriers, thus making US goods cheaper to buyers in other countries.
• Foreign aid viewed as an extension of the Western welfare state.

American Hegemony

Economic affairs:

• Bretton Woods System

  • General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

  • World Bank

  • International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Early institutions

• GATT becomes WTO in 1995. Provides a forum for international trade law, tariff negotiations, and dispute resolution.
• World Bank: Originally focused on reconstruction after WWII. Later shifts to focus on development and poverty reduction.
• IMF: Originally intended to help maintain stable exchange rates and address balance of payments problems. US dollar was pegged to gold initially, so some management of the monetary system was still required. Since moving off the gold standard the IMF is not focused on debt management and balance of payments crises. Exchange rates were fixed, but could be adjusted (See Oatley).

American Hegemony

What does all this mean for US foreign policy?

Big changes, that’s what!

• US forges a series of long-term military alliances
• New economic and military aid programs
• Building up a nuclear arsenal
• Maintaining long-term overseas military deployments
• Maintaining high levels of military spending
• Using military force abroad with greater regularity and intensity
• Focus on political demands from less developed countries
• Economic and monetary policies more tightly entwined with rest of the world
• Policy goals require greater international coordination (i.e. multilateralism)
• Greater attention on disparities between US domestic policies and foreign policies

World is more complicated

• The US is in a position to manage many, many more relationships than in the past, and those issues are increasingly technical in nature (e.g. trade, nuclear weapons, etc.)

• The issue of race relations in the US was a major focus in the lead up to the conferences laying out the United Nations

• Domestic groups used foreign policy statements and international institutions to call attention to domestic injustices

• International actors pointed to US domestic problems with race to undermine its rhetoric for justice, equality, and democracy abroad.

• FDR promised Stalin at Tehran conference that US troops would be out of Europe within two years

Accepting American Leadership

European considerations:

• Military weakness
• Economic weakness
• Intra-European competition

Other Countries:

• US position on Anti-Imperialism
• US rhetoric on self-determination, democracy, and human rights
• Support for particular domestic political and military factions
• Economic and/or military assistance
• Access to American markets

• Military Weakness

• Soviet Union increasingly hostile.

• Western European militaries exhausted from the war

• Military capabilities take a long time to rebuild

• Economic Weakness

• Economies are in ruins. Basic infrastructure and capital need to re-accumulate

• US aid is a necessity to rebuild. Europeans can’t manufacture basic goods.

• US leadership in military affairs will help ease the burdens on recovering economies, allowing Europeans to divert resources to other ends.

• Intra-European competition

• US involvement helps to alleviate fears of a security dilemma

• Reconstruction and rearmament would be uneven, and some countries are more exposed to the USSR than others.

• US involvement helped to serve as a sort of referee

• This was particularly important for France and Germany, whose long history made them wary of each other

• Other countries:

  • Legacy of Wilson’s attitude during Paris negotiations in 1919 still haunts independence movements
  • Many wary of US hypocrisy with respect to the treatment of minorities at home. Disconnect between US behavior and rhetoric
  • Other countries see the US-Soviet rivalry as an opportunity to exploit. Get aid, money, weapons, and access to markets.

Post Cold War

Post Cold War

Unipolar Moment

• A term used to describe the period immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union

• US is now the sole superpower remaining

• Focus begins to shift away from superpower competition to

  • Peace Enforcement
  • Peacekeeping
  • Conflict stabilization
  • Expanding trade liberalization

Post-Cold War

Gulf War

• Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait, August 2 1990

• Kuwait was formerly a part of Iraq

• Iraq depleted from 8-year war with Iran, accused Kuwait of manipulating (read suppressing) oil prices

• Controlling Kuwait gave Saddam Hussein control of 20% of world’s oil supplies

• George H.W. Bush assembles a global coalition to expel Iraq

• UN Security Council grants approval on November 29, 1990

• Deadline for withdrawal is set for January 15, 1991

U.S. Army Gen. Norman H. Schwarzkopf, commander of U.S. Central Command, speaks to U.S. soldiers inside a hangar while visiting a base camp during Operation Desert Shield, April 1, 1992.(Defense Department). Courtesy of Military.com

Notes

• US does not pursue Iraqi forces into Iraq and lets large portions of Saddam’s military remain largely intact, albeit with substantial portions destroyed

• Concerns over regional power vacuums and expanded conflict if they toppled Saddam

• Saddam used remnants to murder thousands of Kurds and Shia Iraqis who rose up against him.

Post Cold War

Trade Liberalization

• China begins making market-oriented reforms in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping

• The GATT becomes the WTO in 1995

• In 2001 China joins the WTO, after 14 years of negotiations

• The agreement requires China and other WTO countries to reduce tariffs on a range of goods

Mr. Shi Guangshen, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of China, signs, subject to ratification, China’s Protocol on the Accession to the WTO at the 4th Ministerial Conference in Doha in November 2001. Photo: Copyright WTO.

Post Cold War

September 11 Attacks

• 19 members of al Qaeda hijack four passenger jets

• Two jets hit the World Trade Center towers, one hit the Pentagon, and one crashed in rural Pennsylvania after the hijackers were overpowered by passengers

• Largest single terror attack with 2,977 immediate fatalities and injuries to thousands more from long-term health consequences

• Bush Administration declares a “War on Terror”

• Invasion of Afghanistan in October of 2001

• Invasion of Iraq in March of 2003

Front page of the New York Times from Wednesday, September 12, 2001.