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GOVT - Ch 16
Foreign Policy
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| foreign policy | A systematic and general plan that guides a country's attitudes and actions toward the rest of the world; includes all economic, military, commercial, and diplomatic positions and actions. |
| moral idealism | In foreign policy, the belief that the most important foal is to do what is right. Moral idealists think that it is possible for nations to cooperate as part of a rule-based community. |
| political realism | In foreign policy, the belief that nations are inevitably selfish, and that we should seek to protect our national security regardless of moral arguments. |
| isolationism | A political policy of noninvolvement in world affairs. |
| Monroe Doctrine | A US policy, announced in 1823 by President James Monroe, that the US would not tolerate foreign intervention in the Western Hemisphere, and in return, the US would stay out of European affairs. |
| interventionism | Direct involvement by one country in another country's affairs. |
| colonial empire | A group of dependent nations that are under the rule of a single imperial power. |
| neutrality | A position of not being aligned with either side in a dispute or conflict, such as war. |
| Soviet bloc | The group of Eastern European nations that fell under the control of the Soviet Union following World War II. |
| iron curtain | A phrase coined by Winston Churchill to describe the political boundaries between the democratic countries in Western Europe and the Soviet-controlled Communist countries in Eastern Europe. |
| Marshall Plan | A plan providing for US economic assistance to European nations following WWII to help those nations recover from the war; named after George C. Marshall, secretary of state from 1947 to 1949. |
| containment | A US policy designed to contain the spread of communism by offering military and economic aid to threatened nations. |
| Cold War | The war of words, warnings, and ideologies between the Soviet Union and the US that lasted from the late 1940s through the early 1990s. |
| deterrence | A policy of building up military strength for the purpose of discouraging military attacks by other nations; "building weapons for peace" of the arms race between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. |
| mutually assured destruction (MAD) | A phrase referring to the assumption, on which the policy of deterrence was based, that if the forces of two nations are equally capable of destroying each other, neither nation will take a chance on war. |
| Cuban missile crisis | A nuclear standoff that occurred in 1962 when the US learned that the Soviet Union had placed nuclear warheads in Cuba, ninety miles off the US coast; defused diplomatically, but considered the closest the superpowers came to a nuclear confrontation. |
| detente | French word meaning a "relaxation of tensions;" characterized the relationship between the US and the Soviet Union in the 1970s, as the rivals attempted to pursue cooperative dealings and arms control. |
| coalition | An alliance of nations formed to undertake a foreign policy action, particularly a military action; often a temporary alliance that dissolves after the action is concluded. |
| weapons of mass destruction | Chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons that can inflict massive causalities. |
| preemptive war | A war launched by a nation to prevent an imminent attack by another nation. |
| preventive war | A war launched by a nation to prevent the possibility that another nation might attack at some point in the future; not supported by international law. |
| neoconservatism | A philosophy of foreign policy based on moral idealism; supports the use of economic and military power to bring democracy and human rights to other countries. |
| Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) | An organization formed in 1964 to represent the Palestinian people; has a long history of terrorism but for some years has functioned primarily as a political party. |
| Oslo Accords | The first agreement signed between Israel and the PLO; led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied territories. |
| normal trade relations (NTR) status | A trade status granted through an international treaty by which each member nation must treat other members at least as well as it treats the country that receives its most favorable treatment; formerly known as most-favored-nation status. |
Created by:
lisagrand
Popular American Government sets