The United States foreign policy has always been about building a sustainable democratic world that is secure and prosperous for the wellbeing of the American people and the global community. In pursuit of its foreign policy goals, the U.S has taken up the role of the world police where its military is involved in many foreign events. The U.S involvement in international events as world police can be explained by various factors that influenced U.S foreign policy after the civil war. Looking at the instances where U.S military has been involved in the affairs of other nations, it is evident that the role of the U.S as the world police has been influenced by its rise to a superpower and its pursuit of democracy and world peace.
There are many instances when the US military has been actively involved in foreign operations in various countries of the word. One example was in 2014 June 19 when president Obama decided to deploy 300 military officials to Iraq with the objective of advising the Iraq armed forces, securing the American embassy and personnel, assessing the security situation in Iraq, and increasing the capacity of the forces against Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) (Torreon, 2016). The president increased the troops by 200 to improve security for its embassy and Iraq’s international embassies.
Furthermore, the president added 130 more troops in 13 August 2014 to assist in humanitarian mission for displaced civilians (Torreon, 2016). The other example of U.S military involvement abroad is the 2012 deployment of U.S forces to Libya and Yemen to deal with securities threats especially on the U.S personnel in those countries. For Libya, the U.S was responding to an attack on its diplomatic post in Benghazi (Torreon, 2016). The U.S argued that its intention was to protect its citizens and property in these countries. These two instances can be associated with the historical U.S policy of engaging in military actions in foreign lands in order to protect its national security and promote democracy (Meernik, 1996). In addition, America abandoned isolationism and noninterventionism after the civil war and has always defended its abroad military interventionism in aid of democracy and security (Crowley, 2010).
Various aspects of U.S history have seen it rise over time to become the world’s superpower policeman. On one historical aspect, the U.S triumphed over Spain in the struggle over Cuba in 1898, after which Cuba became independent while the U.S gained territories such as Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam from Spain (Herring, 2008). The result was that America became a colonial power and towards the 20th century America was gaining the characteristics of a great power with great strides ahead of others in economic resources, geographic size, population, and military strength. Another aspect of U.S history that led to U.S being the superpower was the period following World War II, when the US emerged as a superpower together with the USSR. In order to foster peace the US assisted nations both in Europe and Asia to rebuild their economies destroyed during the war (Herring, 2008). In addition, the senate voted in favor of the US joining the United Nations (UN) and therefore ended the era of the U.S isolationism. Finally, during the cold war, the U.S and USSR engaged in competition in economy, technology, space travel, and military strength. U.S succeeded to become a great influence globally in political, military, technological, economic, and cultural aspects (Herring, 2008).
Since World War II, the U.S has assumed the role of a policeman in various international incidents. For instance, from 1947 to 1949, the US intervened in a Greece civil war where it supported the neo-fascists against the Nazis to the victory of the neo-fascists (Torreon, 2016). Secondly, the U.S also assumes the role of world police in the war against drug trafficking. Most of the world’s great drug lords are arrested through the involvement of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and prosecuted in the U.S (Crowley, 2010). Thirdly, the most recent U.S interventions as world policeman is the invasion of Iraq in 2003 with America accusing Iraq of possessing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and supporting terrorism (Torreon, 2016). President George W. Bush claimed that the invasion was to free the Iraqi people.
There are various driving forces that influence U.S involvement in international incidents as the world police. One factor entails treaties such as the Northern Atlantic Treaty organization (NATO), which requires members to take military actions against any attack by non-member countries (Crowley, 2010). That is the factor that led to the support of Greece neo-fascists against the Nazis by the U.S since the U.S saw the Nazis as enemy. America relied on treaties such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT), Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BWC), and Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) to justify its invasion of Iraq (Crowley, 2010). In addition, war is a factor that drives U.S military involvement in pursue of global peace or support of democracy. In the war against Iraq, the U.S was driven by the belief that disarming Iraq was in the interest of peace, stability and security in the region and in America (Torreon, 2016). Finally, various policies prohibiting drugs production, distribution, and use drive America to assume the world policeman role in the war on drugs.
The U.S has for long acted as policeman of the world since its emergence as a superpower and shifting from non-interventionism and isolationism to interventionism. The U.S has grown to a formidable superpower in various stages of its history after the civil war. The role of the U.S as a world policeman is seen in various incidences of military action abroad such as in the Greece civil war of 1947-49, invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the continued global involvement of the FBI in the war against drugs. Various driving forces influence America’s military intervention in foreign land. These include international treaties, America’s commitment to peace and democracy, and protection of America’s own interests abroad.
