The Four Foreign Policy Worldviews in Chapter 14

The elite group of American society has always considered four foreign policy worldviews when it comes to matters of politics. These include human rights, disengagement, anti-appeasement, and the isolation of foreign policies. Firstly, the human rights school of thought argues that a violation of inherent human rights in one country is a violation of humanity worldwide (Wilson et al., 2014). Therefore, if people are killed, violated, or discriminated against based on intrinsic rights in relation to race, ethnicity, or nationality, a country is justified to intervene to protect the citizens against such atrocities. An example is when the U.S. attacked the Serbian forces to protect the Albanians from mass killings.

Secondly, the disengagement worldview emerged in the 1970s after the U.S. suffered the negative consequences of political disaster and military defeat after fighting Soviet communism in Vietnam (Wilson et al., 2014). Therefore, this foreign policy advocates for the avoidance of such intervention and should weigh the circumstances of usage before applying. Thirdly, the anti-appeasement viewpoint states that the U.S. should resist any nation advocating for aggression, particularly the Soviet Union. The standpoint came into existence after World War II. This view emerged after the British Prime minister tried to appease Hitler’s territorial demands, which contributed to the outbreak of World War II (Wilson et al., 2014). As a lesson learned, any country that championed such aggression should be resisted according to this worldview.

Lastly, isolationism was the view adopted during the 1920s and 1930s after the American experience in World War I. According to Wilson et al. (2014), in their effort to maintain stability in Europe, the U.S. suffered a massive loss of its troops, yet the war did not achieve much. As a result, the foreign policy advocated for the U.S. to stay away from any European wars. In conclusion, these foreign policy viewpoints were mainly based on past experiences with other countries and how these experiences affected the U.S.