International Politics – Maintaining Good Relationships with Neighboring Countries

International Politics – Maintaining Good Relationships with Neighboring Countries
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December 16, 2020
Understanding the political dynamics between neighboring countries is essential for every political scientist and policy-maker. It allows them to have a clear understanding of the thin line that separates friendship from the conflict in relation to the State’s actions that have a cross-boundary effect. Accordingly, despite being a superpower, the United States has explicitly recognized how important it is for the country to maintain its solidarity and friendship with other countries in order to gain a strategic advantage, not only within the continent but also over other nations in the world. Thus, in this article, the author would like to analyze the bilateral relationships that the United States has with its neighboring countries Canada and Mexico. The subsequent sections would analyze how important these relationships between different administrations, as well as how this importance is manifested through domestic and foreign policies. All in all, the author believes that the United States has placed a premium on maintaining the relationship between these two countries in order to strengthen its economy and security in line with its larger goal of maintaining the status quo.
The United States Foreign Policy
In line with the United States’ unrelentless capitalist ideals, its foreign policy has always been targeted towards the improvement of its economic and political advantages through the promotion of free trade between nations. This is because by lowering the barriers towards imports and exports, the country could then take advantage of its decisive technological superiority and increase its profits in the long run.
Accordingly, this tendency towards improving free trade relationships could be seen in its friendly relationships between Mexico and Canada. In one report released by the Bureau of Western Affairs (2020), CITATION Bur20 \l 1033 (Bureau of Western Affairs, 2020), Canada and Mexico are the country’s first and largest trading partner and export market, respectively. Notably, the report from the State agency noted that in 2019, the overall volume of goods in both the export and import markets combined had totalled $614.5 billion in Mexico alone suggesting how vital these trade relationships are in the market.
On the other hand, the United States also benefit from these two neighboring countries in terms of other non-monetary advantages. For example, Mexico helps supply cheap labor to the United States, whether by outsourcing the job production to the Mexican countryside or by having immigrants sent over the United States to do the intensive manual labor. Although there has been much controversy about this migration pattern towards the United States (as well as the migrant laborer’s rights), this benefits the United States by helping reduce the capital and operational costs for companies. In contrast to this, the U.S. also benefits from Canada since the latter is the “largest foreign supplier of crude oil to the U.S., accounting for 48% of total U.S. crude oil imports and 22% of U.S. refinery crude oil intake” CITATION Gov20 \l 1033 (Government of Canada, 2020).
All in all, this shows that the United States’ policy that prioritizes the friendly relationship with these neighboring countries is more than an act of kindness, but rather a necessary move to ensure its economic strength and dominance.
Bilateral Relationships
Since maintaining good friendly relationships between the U.S. and its ne...