Unit 7: The Executive Branch - Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy

A nation's stands and actions in every aspect of its relationships with other countries (diplomatic, military, commercial, etc.). Includes everything the government says and does in world affairs.

Domestic Affairs

A nation's internal affairs.

Foreign Affairs

A nation's relationships with other nations.

Isolationism

A purposeful refusal to become generally involved in the affairs of the rest of the world.

Isthmus of Panama

A narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas.

Pearl Harbor

Location of a surprise attack by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, which led to the U.S. entering World War II.

Collective Security

The principle of nations acting together against any nation that threatened the peace.

Deterrence

The strategy of maintaining military might at so great a level that it will discourage an attack on the country by any hostile power.

Harry Truman

U.S. President who initiated the policy of deterrence.

Cold War

A period of more than 40 years during which relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union were tense and hostile.

Containment

A U.S. policy rooted in the belief that if communism could be kept within its existing boundaries, it would collapse.

Dwight Eisenhower

U.S. President during the Cold War era.

John F. Kennedy

U.S. President during the Cold War era.

Lyndon Johnson

U.S. President during the Cold War era.

Détente

A lessening of tensions during the Cold War.

Ronald Reagan

U.S. President during the Cold War era.

Monroe Doctrine

Declared that the United States would look on any attempt by European powers to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.

Roosevelt Corollary

Added to the Monroe Doctrine, stating the United States would police Latin America.

Good Neighbor Policy

Replaced the Roosevelt Corollary, reducing U.S. political and military interventions in Latin America to win friends.

Open Door Policy

Promoted equal trade access for all nations in China and demanded that China's independence and sovereignty over its own territory be preserved.

Pearl Harbor

American naval base attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941.

Deterrence

The principle of maintaining military might at a great level to deter an attack.

Containment

The policy of keeping communism within its existing boundaries.

Truman Doctrine

Approved a program of economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey to prevent them from falling under Soviet control.

Viet Cong

Communist guerrillas supported by North Vietnam who initiated a civil war in South Vietnam.

Vietnamization

The policy initiated by President Richard Nixon to gradually withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam and transfer the responsibility to the South Vietnamese.

Détente

A policy aimed at easing tensions with the Soviet Union and China.

SALT I

A five-year agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1972 that aimed to control nuclear weapons.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Leader who came to power in the Soviet Union in 1985, paving the way for the end of the Cold War with a series of summit conferences with President Ronald Reagan.

Deterrence and Containment

American policies implemented in 1947 to prevent the spread of communism and discourage Soviet aggression. They were eventually successful.

Global Village

The concept that the world has become interconnected through rapid travel and instantaneous communications.

Israel

Independent state created by the United Nations on May 14, 1948, and quickly recognized by the United States.

Camp David Accords

Historic agreement negotiated with the involvement of President Jimmy Carter in 1979 between Israel and Egypt that led to the end of hostilities between the two countries.

Oslo Accords

Agreements signed in 1993 between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), in which they officially recognized one another and Israel agreed to limited Palestinian self-rule.

Arab Spring

A series of uprisings that swept through the Middle East and North Africa in 2010 and 2011, causing widespread instability.

Taliban

An ultraconservative political and religious faction that gained control over most of Afghanistan by the late 1990s.

Al Qaeda

Islamist militant organization led by Osama bin Laden, which was harbored by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

9/11 Attacks

Attacks on September 11, 2001, by the Al Qaeda Islamist terrorist group, which led to the U.S. and its NATO allies toppling the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Saddam Hussein

President of Iraq who was captured, tried, and executed in 2006 after the U.S.-led invasion.

Libya

North African country ruled by Muammar al-Qaddafi until 2011, when rebels challenged his control during the Arab Spring uprisings leading to a UN authorized multinational intervention