[MUSIC] In this video, we're going to be talking about one of the all-time great powers in world politics, the United States of America. The USA has been arguably a great power at least since the 19th century. But it became a very prominent great power or what came to be known as a superpower after World War II. So, from 1945 until today it has remained a great power and at times, as we will see, a sole superpower of the world. So, the USA has practically shaped the world as it exists today. And there's no way that we can discuss international relations, international security, strategy, anything, foreign policy without reference to the USA. It has been a defining power and even the discipline of international relations for that matter, what we study academically has emerged out of American academia, primarily. And now of course’it's more diffused and spread out but US contribution both to the practice of international relations and to the theory of it has been enormous. So, ’et's examine US foreign policy. The US is a case study on one of the great powers and how they behave in the world, how their foreign policy adjusts as per the changing power dynamics in the world. So, to begin with what does the USA want from the world? What kind of foreign policy has it adopted in the last 75 years since it became a superpower or a major power. Now the purposes of American foreign policy you can focus on three main aspects. The first is geopolitics. You know t’ey've always had a geopolitical perspective to the world. The second is economics and the third are values. So, in this video’we're going to be talking first about geopolitics. So, what motivates the US geopolitically to be engaged or involved in the world? The first and foremost has been what they call maintaining a favorable balance of power, especially in three critical regions, Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. Now, why these three regions? You have to go back to history or to look at the evolution of the American thinking about the global balance of power, especially once they entered World War II after Pearl Harbor in 1941. And by 1945-46 as the Cold War was dawning, already they were clear, we should not allow another country or another peer or another great power from being able to dominate any one of these three regions. Europe, especially Middle East, and East Asia because the idea was that if any one of these regions falls into the “the hands” of a competing power, then we are going to lose primacy. So, American purpose, one of the core purposes and this has remained constant even during the era of bipolarity, unipolarity and the emerging multi-polarity of today. The core purpose has been to sustain this favorable balance of power and to deny rival powers, rival great powers, the ability to dominate or control key regions of the world. So, if you go back in time and look at pivotal figures like Paul Nietzsche, who designed the US policy planning in the 1950s during the heyday of the Cold War, all the way up to 1992 at the beginning of the unipolar era. And even 2021, look at official US documents, look at official US government pronouncements, they always emphasize this fact that we need a favorable balance of power. We must not permit the rise of an opponent who is likely to equal or overtake us in any of these key regions. So, the plethora of American military bases, for example, which is now, some people say there are hundreds of them across the world, different types of arrangements they have with different countries. The purpose has always been, they say it is to provide regional security, it is to protect their allies, it is to protect the US core national interests. But the unsaid aspect is to make sure that there is no rival that's likely to become militarily or even economically very dominant in any of these regions. How successful the US has been in maintaining the sustainable balance of power remains a matter of question. But what goes without saying is, they want this kind of arrangement. And this idea, that of primacy or preponderance has been justified in the American foreign policy establishment, domestically within the US as necessary for the American way of life to be sustained, for the world to remain free and for all kinds of reasons. And the main driving force has always been, like I said to deny rivals. So, in that sense one of the core geopolitical purposes of US foreign policy or any great power if you think about it is to make sure they stay ahead and to ensure that somebody else is not catching up or overtaking them. Now the remarkable consistency of this vision is what probably sustains the US as a great power. There have been phases where America's withdrawn, has stepped back, has gone into an isolationist shell. But, overall at least from the foreign policy elite establishment, the view has always been, we are needed, we are indispensable, without us there can be no world order. We have to sustain the post War world order, supposed for meaning post 1945, then again post-Cold War order, post 1991. Even today in the emergent multi-polar order, contemporary American leaders continue to talk about the need to counter what they call systemic challenges or pacing challenges. By which they mean, countries that have got the capacity to equal them or to overtake them. So, this whole idea that America has national security and this national security is not just confined to its protecting its homeland but about sustaining this global balance of power which is in its favor. This is the root in many ways driving US foreign policy, without this, you're going to look at the US as lacking a vision for why it should engage with the world. So they have had this notion of power and of wielding power of acquiring power and holding onto power and they've articulated it, they've given a rationale for it. And you see that and among all the great powers of the post-War era, Soviet Union, now China, you compare the three great powers. The US has been the most articulate in terms because it’s a democratic country. They've always been putting out these national security strategies and defense-planning guidelines, and all kinds of official documentation by the State Department, by the National Security Council, by the Defense Department, by the White House. They're like a variety of administrative organs of the US government that keep on talking about what are their goals and they have periodic updates to this. And in the process, what it does is it helps us to clearly read and understand how a great power typically conducts its foreign policy. So, whether it's unipolarity multipolarity or bipolarity of the past, the point is the US wants to remain on top and to prevent adversaries from reaching anywhere close to them. How successful they are, proof of the pudding is in eating it. But the point is they have stated these goals. So, to sum up, the US wants to be in the world in order to remain dominant, which it says is necessary for order, for security, and stability. [MUSIC]
