Artist’s Manifesto

Artist’s Manifesto

The United States of America has a series of policies in foreign relations that determine how it relates to other nations under concern majorly regarding business and sovereign protection. In most cases, the countries that bear the effects of the policies include those with a bearing on the world economy or whose territorial attack spreads to the US. This work explores us multilateral engagement policy in trade and war concerning China and Afghanistan.

AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY ISSUE

Patterson indicates the endless Afghanistan war stands as the primary trigger for US foreign relations policy (528). Earlier US presidents like George H W Bush proposed the protection of the nation from within. However, after the September 2011 attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the US embarked on multilateral policy, protecting the nation both from within and beyond its borders (Patterson 527). The attack pushed George W Bush to change is the initial position to support multilateralism in wars against terrorism, which he initially reprimanded. He authorized US troops to attack Taliban training grounds in Afghanistan, toppled the Taliban government.

During his reign, president Obama authorized another attack that killed the group’s leader Osama bin Laden. The war slowed after the killing of Osama in 2011 under the orders of President Obama. Obama’s reverted his attempt to withdraw all US troops by 2014 from the nation after a significant increase in Taliban threats to US stability. President Trump’s approach proves handy (Patterson 528). The US should consider the systematic and gradual withdrawal of its troops from enemy prone nations. The method will prevent the evolution of a military vacuum that would favor the re-assembling of the terrorists.

US-CHINA TRADE WAR

The US-China trade war causes both positives and negatives. In support of protectionism, some economists argue that the appropriate tariffs by US administration would help its economy as the solution (Patterson 230). Some of the benefits of protectionism include giving US business people a market advantage for their products.  As other economists castigate the war, they claim that converse to protectionism free trade would relieve the US farmers and manufacturers from their market struggles. They would access the vast market in China. US consumers will also benefit from low prices of commodities from China (Patterson 230). Free trade would also stabilize the stock market.

US MILITARY SPENDING

Despite Patterson indicating a 36% GDP US spending on the military, one would argue that the nation still spends just a sufficient amount on is defense (534). The country currently plays a critical role in stabilizing the world from terrorism and keeping water bodies open for business. This requires more than what the country needs to defend its operations. Patterson also indicates that the US military uses 20% of the fuel used by the entire nation (535). This rate is still sufficient, considering the complexity of military operations.

Work Cited

Patterson (2018). We, the People (Chapter 17). New York: McGraw Hill