American Foreign Policy in the PCW (or unipolarity) Week 5

Overview : New World Order ? The collapse of the SU created a massive shift in the international balance of power and left the US as the sole remaining superpower. Early conflicts like the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that led to the Gulf War and clashes in the former Yugoslavia brought the US together with new allies ( including Russia) to solve international problems. President G. H. W. Bush defined the shift as a "New World Order“ At this unipolar moment, whether the US should work to promote security/stability ( i.e.prevent ethnic conlicts , proliferation) or democracy or open markets ?

“ What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” The End of History

“The tendencies of what I am here calling the forces of Jihad and the forces of McWorld operate with equal strength in opposite directions, the one driven by hatreds, the other by universalizing markets, the one re-creating ancient subnational and ethnic borders from within, the other making national borders porous from without. They have one thing in common: neither offers much hope to citizens looking for practical ways to govern themselves democratically.” Jihad vs.McWorld

“…The fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.” The Clash of Civilizations

Chronology of key events 1991 - US forces play dominant role in war against Iraq, which was triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and ended with the expulsion of Iraqi troops from that country. 1992 - Democratic Party candidate Bill Clinton elected president. - US intervenes Somali for humanitarian relief - Congress passes NAFTA, intended to create free-trade bloc among US, Canada and Mexico.

1993 June: Air assault on Iraq September: Oslo Accords on Middle East Ocotber:18 US military personnel killed in Somalia 1994 April : US forces leave Somalia September : US invasion of Haiti October: North Korean nuclear agreement 1995 August: US diplomatic initiative in Bosnia and launched a limited bombing campaign against Bosnian Serb positions. November: Dayton Peace Accords

Dayton Agreement (21 November 1995)

1996 November: Clinton re-elected 1998 April: Good Friday ( Belfast) Peace Agreement August: Missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan. December: US-UK air strikes on Iraq 1999 March: NATO air strikes – without UN mandate- air strikes on Serbia begin.

US plays leading role in NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia in response to Serb violence against ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo. (1999 March-June)

2000 July: Israel-Palestine peace talks begin to Camp David November: Republican Party's George W Bush wins presidency. 2001 July: US tests its controversial missile defence shield, or "Son of Star Wars".

11 September attacks 2001 11 September - Co-ordinated suicide attacks on various high-profile targets, prompting the US to embark on a ''war on terror'' which includes the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. 2001 October - US leads massive campaign of air strikes against Afghanistan and helps opposition forces defeat the Taleban regime and find Saudi-born dissident Osama Bin Laden, who is suspected of masterminding the 11 September attacks. 2001 October - USA Patriot Act approved by the Senate, giving the government greater powers to detain suspected terrorists, eavesdrop on communications and counter money-laundering. 2002 January - State of the Union address: President George W Bush includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea in what he describes as an "axis of evil".

Iraq war 2003 March - Missile attacks on Baghdad mark the start of a US-led campaign to topple the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. US forces advance into central Baghdad in early April. 2003 1 May - President Bush declares that the main part of the war in Iraq is over. 2004 May - Furore over pictures showing the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in US custody. 2004 July - Senate report says US and allies went to war in Iraq on "flawed" information.

Bush second term 2004 2 November - Presidential elections: George W Bush wins a second term. 2006 March - Congress renews the USA Patriot Act, a centrepiece of the government's fight against terrorism, after months of debate about its impact on civil liberties. The government agrees to some curbs on information gathering. 2006 November - Democratic Party wins control of the Senate and House of Representatives in mid-term elections. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld steps down. 2007 January - President Bush announces a new Iraq strategy; thousands more US troops will be dispatched to shore up security in Baghdad.

Lehman collapse 2008 September - Turmoil in the US and international financial markets as major Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers collapses and other big US financial players face growing troubles as a result of the "credit crunch". -With hundreds of billions of dollars wiped out in bad loans and a prolonged property slump, the US faces its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

2009 June: Obama delivers speech in Cairo seek a new beginning between the US and Muslims around the world. 2010 April : US and Russia agreement on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

2010 November - Republicans make sweeping gains in mid-term elections, regaining control of House of Representatives. 2011 May - US forces kill Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in an operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. 2011 December - Last US troops withdraw from Iraq 2012 January - Obama unveils new defence strategy with greater emphasis on Asia.

The US on Syrian Crisis 2013 September - UN weapons inspectors conclude that chemical weapons were used in an attack on the Ghouta area of Damascus in August that killed about 300 people, but do not explicitly allocate responsibility for the attack. 2013 September 8- US Secretary of State John Kerry says he and Arab League foreign ministers have agreed that the Syrian president's alleged use of chemical weapons crossed a "global red line". 2013 October - President Assad allows international inspectors to begin destroying Syria's chemical weapons on the basis of a US-Russian agreement.

My website http://eiseri.yasar.edu.tr/

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