American Foreign Policy History Assignment Paper

American Foreign Policy
Name
Institution
American Foreign Policy
Introduction
Every country has its interests that it often wants to safeguard whenever it is negotiating or interacting with other nations. Therefore, governments always have an area or a docket allocated or set aside whose sole purpose is to enact laws and policies that govern a country’s conduct. These policies and laws constitute a country’s foreign policy. A country’s foreign policy, therefore, governs or seeks to protect the objectives and ambitions of a nation. According to boundless.com (2016), the main issues or elements that constitute national interest are “the state’s survival, welfare, and security. Also important is the pursuit of wealth, economic growth, and power.” The American Foreign Policy, therefore, seeks to enhance and ensure that the interests, goals, and ambitions of the United States are never tampered with or in danger at any moment. According to boundless.com (2016), the implementation of the foreign policy is typically the work of the executive branch of the government. The article continues further and mentions the president, the national security adviser, the State Department, the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the intelligence agencies. This article will expound on the Iran Nuclear Deal and vividly elucidate on how this deal accounts for or represents a government enacting its foreign policy goals.
Iran-Nuclear Deal
Currently, almost every country wants or is seeking to shift to nuclear energy. However, the above comes with its risks and consequences for the world. Knowledge spreads fast, and since the 1945 US atomic bomb, countries have taken turns re-inventing the wheel and have thus built deadlier weapons. Numerous reports have continuously suggested that the world is moving closer to the Third World War. However, with its influence and impact felt all over the world, the US has been working hard to maintain order and sanity.
Iran was moving and acting fast to improve and grow is nuclear ability. However, the US government saw this as an impending danger to the world and therefore, thought it best to act to limit it. Ties between the US and Iran were bad, but negotiators managed to broker a win-win deal that would guarantee the world peace while economically improving Iran. Jones and Barker (2015) from Financial Times listed the following items as the main items: sanctions relief, uranium enrichment, plutonium production, verifications and inspections and possible military dimensions.
Cuban Foreign policy
For over 60 years, the united states government had imposed trade and diplomatic restrictions on Cuba citing political differences. The Castro regime was accused of being dictatorial and oppressive though the US never succeeded in ousting the regime. Obama ended the historical embargo and initiated diplomatic ties with the country amidst strong opposition that was fueled by political mileage from few republicans. However, the Trump administration has continually been undoing the progress that had been made by his predecessor.
Propaganda
Propaganda has always been used as a weapon by individuals in power to manipulate and skew towards their advantage. At the center of the propaganda, model is the mass media which has on numerous occasions been used to steer the agenda of a few albeit powerful individuals.
While analyzing the Iran Nuclear deal, it is indeed true that propaganda has been used by some individuals to influence people’s views of the same. The UN, the EU, and certainly the US (before Trump’s presidency) believed that Iran presented a threat to the world. Iran’s activities were indeed questionable, and the country had indicated that it was improving its nuclear ability. Factors such as uranium enrichment and plutonium production were clear signs. However, on his campaign trail, Donald Trump repeatedly stated that Iran was not a threat to the world. It is true that sanctions had worked to cripple Iran’s economy. However, that would not prevent a desperate government from moving forward and building the world’s most dangerous weapon. Iran was and still is a threat and talk of it not posing a greater risk to the world is propaganda, and gradually people will indeed believe these sentiments. By focusing on Iran as a lesser threat, the media is also promoting the narrative, and millions are taking it as the gospel truth.
The Cuban foreign policy has been shaped by various political camps in the US history. The stories propagated by the opposing government have left an impact on the development of trade and diplomatic ties with the tiny neighbor. Propaganda on the killing attempts of Fidel by the CIA escalated the issue and hardened the stance of the negotiating parties. On the US side, the country is perceived as insignificant to the US political or economic course and therefore needless to help. The propaganda has hampered the full lifting of the embargo despite the attempts by the Obama administration to open their borders to the south-eastern neighbor. The Cuban policy differs from the Iran nuclear policy in regard to propaganda content because the appeal made to the public and law makers on Iran is covered in the pretext of preventing terrorism while the appeal made on Cuban policy is wrapped in long-standing belief that Cuba is communist and therefore pro...