Introduction

1.	Trends in US foreign policy 1 Aspects of Force in US Foreign policy

2.	US Foreign Policy under George W. Bush

2.1.	G.W. Bush and Neoconservatism

2.2.	Assessment of Bush’s foreign policy

3.	The 9/11 attacks

3.1.	Facts about the 9/11 attacks

3.2.	What led to 9/11?

3.2.1.

Al-Qaida prior to 9/11

3.2.2.

Al-Qaida without bin Laden

3.3.	US Reaction to 9/11

3.3.1.

Domestic implications of the 9/11 attack

3.3.2.

International implications of Bush’s war on terror

4.	The Axis of Evil

4.1.

Iraq

4.1.1.

Alternatives to full invasion of Iraq

4.1.2.

Consequences of the Invasion of Iraq

4.1.3.

Hussein’s ability to stay in power

4.2.

Iran

4.2.1.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’ policy towards the US

4.2.2.

Failure of US policy towards Iran after 9/11

4.3.	North Korea

4.3.1.

North Korean Famine – a chance for Clinton?

4.3.2.

Multilateral approach

5.

Iraq

5.1.	Viability of Hussein’s affiliation with Al-Qaida

5.1.1.

Al-Qaida and Ansar al Islam in Iraq

5.1.2.

Implications of the Southern no-fly zone

5.1.3.

Hussein’s affiliation with terrorist organisations other than Al-Qaida

5.2.	WMD threat posed by Iraq

5.3.	Reasons for invasion other than WMD

6.

Iran

6.1.	Iran’s nuclear programme

6.2.	Iran’s support of Terrorist Groups

6.2.1.

al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group, IG)

6.2.2.

Hamas

6.2.3.

Hezbollah

6.2.4.

Al-Qaida

7.	North Korea

7.1.	North Korea’s illicit military trade

7.1.1.

North Korea’ cooperation with Syria

7.1.2.

North Korea’s cooperation with Iran

7.1.3.

North Korea’s cooperation with Libya

7.1.4.

North Korea’s cooperation with Egypt

7.1.5.

North Korea’s cooperation with Myanmar (Burma)

7.1.6.

North Korea’s cooperation with Pakistan

8.	Conclusion

9.	Bibliography

10.	List of Appendices

"Trends in US foreign policy
Throughout history, the US foreign policy has undergone fundamental
changes in its directions, ambitions, and goals.
The early years of presidents Washington, Adams, and Jefferson were in the name of achieving and sustaining
neutrality supported by US geographic location. Indeed, throughout history of
the United States there have been, more often than not, tendencies to isolate the
country from the problems of the world. All the efforts to stay untouched by the
world’s problems were contradicted by US growing export policies and economic
involvement worldwide and, after all, efforts to gain a stronger position in the
worlds’ affairs in the 19 th century 12. The general notion that the Union would only
flourish if isolationism is pursued was, however, revived several times in the US
history and often, somewhat strangely, coexisted with the notion of imperialism,
or the notion that the United States should exercise and show more strength in its
foreign policy. The Monroe doctrine (1823) is a case in point. It serves as a great
early example of America’s growing assertiveness on the world’s scene as it
aimed to divide the spheres of influence. Although the Monroe Doctrine proved
largely successful both politically and economically, it did cause minor crisis in
the countries of Latin America.
Kaufman 2010, 1
Ibid.
McDougall 2010, 18
Mariano 2011, 35
Puckett 1972, 37

As for isolationism, the last attempt at distancing the United States from
other’s nation problems (especially European problems) was at the outbreak of the
World War I, when President Woodrow Wilson urged the nation to remain strictly
neutral as he himself realised that the majority of the American public was against
intervention and also because he perceived the looming conflict as a clash of
“militant nationalism of the major European powers, as well as the ethnic hatreds
that existed in much of Central and Eastern Europe”. The post-war isolationist
foreign policy of presidents Warren Gamaliel Harding, John Calvin Coolidge, and
Herbert Clark Hoover, fuelled by the post-war revisionist movement, was the
last ever attempt by US foreign policy makers at keeping the United States away
from the world’s problems, while at the same time retaining US economic
involvement worldwide. This proved impossible during the presidency of Franklin
Delano Roosevelt when the United States faced a new looming armed conflict –
the World War II. It became increasingly difficult for the United States to stay
away from the world’s affairs as it was the only world power, bar the USSR,
capable of defeating the Nazi Germany and Japan as well as containing
expansionism of the Soviet Union in the post-war years. Apparently, it was the
catastrophic economic aftermath of the World War II, the aggressive foreign
policy of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and his USSR, and the bitter aftertaste of the policy of appeasement towards Hitler’s Germany in the late 1930s which eventually turned the United States of America into a major world super power.
This was the time when the US policy and decision makers fully realised the truly
unique position in the emerging bipolar world as well as the necessity to sustain
and pursue such a role in the face of Soviet expansionism.
The years following
the end of the World War II, the 1950s and 1960s when dealing with Berlin,
Cuban, Korean and other crisis, the US foreign policy showed signs of
uncompromising stubbornness in pursuing its goals, e.g. to contain the spread of
Communism.
The twenty year long Vietnam War showcases US foreign policy
makers’ unwillingness to give up. It is this extraordinary patience in achieving"

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