Colombian Foreign Policy in the 1980s: The Search for Leverage

1985 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 27-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Michael Bagley ◽  
Juan Gabriel Totkatlian
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Year ◽  
World War ◽  
Low Profile ◽  
Profile Approach

During 1981 and early 1982 - the first year and a half of Reagan's first term in office - Colombia, under the leadership of Liberal President Julio César Turbay Ayala (1978-82), surfaced as one of the staunchest U.S. allies in the turbulent Caribbean Basin. That Colombia would endorse the broad outlines of Reagan's policies came as no surprise to anyone, for the country had pursued a consistently pro-North American foreign policy throughout the post-World War II period. What did surprise many observers was the extent to which President Turbay abandoned his country's traditional low-profile approach to Caribbean and hemispheric affairs and replaced it with an activist foreign policy closely identified with the Reagan Administration.Colombia is structurally dependent upon the United States in economic, technological and military terms. While the country's industrial capacity has grown substantially in recent decades, the economy still relies heavily on agro-exports-, coffee alone accounts for two-fifths of the country's foreign exchange earnings.

Sailor

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
David F. Schmitz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
National Security ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Franklin Roosevelt ◽  
Dominant Paradigm

Franklin Roosevelt found the traditional American foreign policy of reliance on the Monroe Doctrine, neutrality, and hemispheric defense inadequate, out-of-date, and dangerous. As a sailor, he successfully tacked and navigate in order to establish internationalism as the dominant paradigm of American foreign policy. Roosevelt's support of internationalism was based on his belief in American exceptionalism and conviction that the United States had to act as a world leader to secure peace and prosperity through collective security, and international cooperation through multilateral organizations. In the process, he developed the concept of national security that guided post-World War II American foreign policy.

The Mutual Defense Assistance Program

1951 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Connery ◽  
Paul T. David
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
Good Laboratory ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Impact

The Mutual Defense Assistance Program represents the military portion of an important foreign policy of the United States, that of aid to free nations. While assisting allies by grants of money and supplies is by no means a new undertaking, even for the United States, the scope of this program, under which expenditures may soon exceed $7 billion annually, makes it a good laboratory specimen to illustrate the impact of a positive foreign policy on the structure of the national government. Furthermore, analysis of the program clearly shows the tremendous changes that have taken place in the methods of formulating and administering American foreign policy since the end of World War II.For more than a generation prior to 1916, the Secretaries of State, War, and Navy occupied the same building at the seat of government.

Colonialism as a Problem in American Foreign Policy

1952 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip W. Bell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
World War ◽  
United States Policy ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
Political Status

Colonialism has been a sore spot in the handling of American foreign policy in the post-World War II period largely because of ambivalent forces, domestic and foreign, which have been tugging at the United States. At the heart of the colonial problem which has faced this country is the central issue of eventual political status for colonial territories. On this question United States policy has traditionally been and continues to be one of condemnation of colonialism and in favor of independence for colonial peoples, with certain reservations added in small print—the grant of independence should not be too hurried and it should be given only to peoples who desire it and are capable of assuming the responsibilities involved.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth McKillen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Governance ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
World War ◽  
American Federation ◽  
International Labor

This book explores the corporatist alliance between President Woodrow Wilson and the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and how it sparked debates over his foreign policy programs within labor circles. During World War II, Wilson pledged to make the world “safe for democracy.” For Wilson, the cooperation of the United States and international labor movements was critical to achieving this goal. To win domestic and international labor support for his foreign policies, Wilson solicited the help of AFL's conservative leaders. This book traces the origins of the partnership that developed between the Wilson administration and AFL leaders to promote U.S. foreign policy, from its tentative beginnings during policy deliberations over how the United States should respond to the Mexican revolution, through World War I, to its culmination with the creation of the International Labor Organization (ILO). It details the significant opposition to the Wilson–AFL collaboration that arose among U.S., transnational, and international labor, Socialists, and diaspora Left groups and how this opposition affected Wilson's efforts to create a permanent role for labor in international governance.

scholarly journals German Question in the Foreign Policy Strategy of the USA in the Second Half of the 1940s – 1980s

2020 ◽  
pp. 73-92
Author(s):  
Dmytro Lakishyk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Marshall Plan ◽  
German Question ◽  
The Usa

The article examines US policy towards West Germany after World War II, covering a historical span from the second half of the 1940s to the 1980s. It was US policy in Europe, and in West Germany in particular, that determined the dynamics and nature of US-German relations that arose on a long-term basis after the formation of Germany in September 1949. One of the peculiarities of US-German relations was the fact that both partners found themselves embroiled in a rapidly escalating international situation after 1945. The Cold War, which broke out after the seemingly inviolable Potsdam Accords, forced the United States and Germany to be on one side of the conflict. Despite the fact that both states were yesterday’s opponents and came out of the war with completely different, at that time, incomparable, statuses. A characteristic feature of US policy on the German question in the postwar years was its controversial evolution. The American leadership had neither a conceptual plan for development, nor a clear idea of Germany’s place in the world, nor an idea of how to plan the country’s future. However, the deterioration of relations between the USA and the USSR and the birth of the two blocs forced the US government to resort to economic revival (the Marshall Plan) and military-political consolidation of Western Europe and Germany (NATO creation). US policy toward Germany has been at the heart of its wider European policy. The United States favored a strong and united Western Europe over American hegemony, trying to prevent the spread of Soviet influence. Joint participation in the suppression of communism, however, could not prevent the periodic exacerbation of relations between the United States and Germany, and at the same time did not lead to an unconditional follow-up of the West Germans in the fairway of American foreign policy.

Harry S. Truman and US Foreign Relations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaete O'Connell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Us Foreign Relations ◽  
American Foreign Relations

Sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States following Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, Harry S. Truman faced the daunting tasks of winning the war and ensuring future peace and stability. Chided by critics for his lack of foreign policy experience but championed by supporters for his straightforward decision-making, Truman guided the United States from World War to Cold War. The Truman presidency marked a new era in American foreign relations, with the United States emerging from World War II unmatched in economic strength and military power. The country assumed a leadership position in a postwar world primarily shaped by growing antagonism with the Soviet Union. Truman pursued an interventionist foreign policy that took measures to contain Soviet influence in Europe and stem the spread of communism in Asia. Under his leadership, the United States witnessed the dawn of the atomic age, approved billions of dollars in economic aid to rebuild Europe, supported the creation of multilateral organizations such as the United Nations and North Atlantic Treaty Organization, recognized the state of Israel, and intervened in the Korean peninsula. The challenges Truman confronted and the policies he implemented laid the foundation for 20th-century US foreign relations throughout the Cold War and beyond.

The “Skeleton Key” — American Foreign Policy, European Unity, and German Rearmament, 1949–54

1986 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spanish American ◽  
World War ◽  
Spanish American War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
European Unity

An older colleague recently observed to me that today we stand further removed in time from the end of World War II than Americans at the beginning of that conflict were from the Spanish American War. To those Americans of 1939, he said, the war with Spain seemed almost antediluvian, while to us World War II lives vividly in memory, and its consequences still shape our lives. As a student of modern American foreign policy, I found my colleague's observation particularly appropriate. American and Soviet soldiers still face each other in the middle of Germany, and Europe remains divided along the lines roughly set by the liberating armies. Yet could we now be facing major changes? Will an agreement to eliminate nuclear weapons in Europe, and glasnost in the Soviet Union transform this environment? Will the postwar division of Europe come to an end? What will be the consequences for the United States?

scholarly journals Swedish non-public diplomacy during World War II on the example of the activities of M. Wallenberg Jr.

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 69-75
Author(s):  
Anton B. Gekht
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
Industrial Group

This article examines the role of Marcus Wallenberg Jr., a prominent financier and industrialist, one of the leaders of the financial and industrial group of the Wallenberg family, in the foreign policy of Sweden on the eve of and during World War II. Having concentrated in his hands the main threads of influence on the industry and the financial sphere of the kingdom, Marcus Wallenberg was unofficially involved in the development of the foreign policy of the kingdom, which sought to be out of direct involvement in the war. The article examines various contacts with representatives of the opposing sides, carries out with the active participation of this banker and industrialist, both as part of official delegations and as individuals – the main focus is on establishing interaction between the USSR and Finland in 1943-1944, as well as cooperation with the Allies – Britain and the United States. The article also analyses the non-institutionalised regular contacts of Marcus Wallenberg Jr. with the political leadership of Sweden during 1938-1945, including the difficulties faced by the financial and industrial group under his control in the period immediately after the end of World War II.

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