American Goverment Assignment | Online Assignment

I am including the forum assignment, my reply, and 2 classmates that need a reply to expand the discussion for the assignment.

The Question:

Discussion Forum 8

In Discussion Forum 8, post your response to the following discussion question. Reply to at least two classmates’ responses by the date indicated in the Course Calendar.

How do you feel about the idea of the United States continuing as the world superpower? Would a return to isolationism benefit the American people more or less? [MO8.3]

My Post

The United States of America, for a long time, has had the ability to exercise influence over nations and portray itself as dominant power all over the world. This power is measured through military, economic growth as well as influence in diplomacy and culture. From 1945 to the end of the cold war, the United States was the only nation that had the ability to set an agenda for meetings that the participating countries considered essential. But with an emerging superpower like China, the United States is slowly losing its power and should embrace isolationism. Currently, the United States is not meeting the criteria of global power. While the US may be doing well with regard to militarily and politically, economically, it is facing challenges.

The current conflict with China is a sign that everything is not well economically; that is, China no longer buys US bonds and plans to sell all the bonds it held. This move will make it difficult for US to perform economically. Through its trillion-dollar belt and road initiative, China has overtaken US in agenda-setting in the Middle East, as illustrated by Klein (2017). Therefore, Isolationism will do the American people more good than harm. The terrorism threat will be eliminated; there being no foreign conflict. The government will also focus more on the citizen’s needs, and the country will save money on military expenditure, which is currently at $US620 billion (Rossi, 2018). Besides, Isolationism will increase the productivity of the land as US will be able to utilize internal resource within its boundaries to create opportunities and markets which will have a direct impact on globalization to other wealthy countries. Lastly, according to Rossi, (2018), George Washington urged the United States government to avoid complicated alliances to solve problems related to ethical coexistence and diversity. Isolationism will promote peace between different groups living within the American boundary.

Reference

Klein, S. (2017). America First Isolationism in US Foreign Policy from the 19th to the 21st Century. Naval Postgraduate School Monterey United States.

Rossi, L. (2018). China takes up challenge to imitate and overtake America. News Weekly, (3029), 9.

Classmate Robert Kettle

The benefit of being a super-power in the world, more so than a military presence is the ability to regulate trade and commodities. One major issue with this is the ability to keep up with other emerging powers such as China. China’s GDP has continuously risen at a higher rate than the U.S. for the last 10+ years. so the Question becomes are we still an economic superpower. Most U.S. industries continue to outsource labor and drive employment costs down to increase profits inflating the GDP but with a large excess of money leaving the U.S. Militarily we still maintain our presence as a superpower and more often than not a “world Police”. while this term has been discussed at great length it is a constant discussion and has been part of the most recent two Presidential elections as a discussion of removing troops from abroad. The idea of being a world super-power is a think a benefit in terms of regulating trade and the free market world economy as well as regulating foreign relations through groups such as NATO to keep our desires and to drive them through these foreign policies and political endeavors. If we do not maintain this presence i believe the outcome may not be in our best interest. Just as military deterrence is a large cost to our budget the potential costs associated with not detering the situations that exist and let them escalate has the potential to be way more costly not only financially but in terms of human life. I do not believe isolationism to be the best policy as a whole. while removing ourselves from some portions of the world may be beneficial, full sale isolationism i feel would be bad for the economy and for U.S. relations abroad.

Thanks

Rob

Classmate Mark Torrefiel

The United States has by and large exceeded the expectations of the founding fathers since its conception 243 years ago. Bursting forth from its rebellious days during the American Revolution, our country looked as though it had the world against it when making its way up the proverbial ladder as a leading country. At that time, we didn’t have a Navy, our people were poorly armed, our laws and regulations still in its infancy, and the idea of where the country would go in the next few years were all things that were against us. As time moved forward, we have proven to the world that our intellectuals and acceptance of a diverse community will continue to propel us forward as a leading superpower. The prospect of being a superpower hadn’t come to fruition until the development of the atomic bomb. After ending the Secon World War and showing to the world that we had the weapon to end all wars, other countries scrambled to have their own weapon of mass destruction. This brings us to the current events of today. Roughly 93% of the time America has been around, America has also been at war. Personally, this staggering fact makes me weary.

Isolationism wouldn’t necessarily be the answer that would benefit Americans as a whole, more or less, but scaling down our international operations would potentially benefit our country both financially and by morale. The GDP of our Defense Department alone is a staggering amount that would be better utilized in other places if we were to scale down in our international affairs. Many countries are already angry with our “meddling” in their politics and believe we need to leave them alone. At this point, however, we are too involved in the affair of the world, with our hands in the honey jar of every country and the protection of human rights and democracy globally, many humans depend on us to continue doing what we do. As it stands, the technology, equipment, cost-effectiveness, and environmental boundaries alone deter many other countries from even considering to attack us, so we have no worries of anyone wanting to physically harm our way of life. With our strong ties between our borders protecting us, no one would want to challenge our shores with an outright war. With our borders safely secure, there stands little reason for us to scale our forces back, maintain a stronger defense of our shores, and concentrate our military forces within our lands.

Though complete isolationism would not benefit us as a whole, there stands reasoning for us to scale our affairs down internationally, divert more funding to other programs that would benefit our people more at home, and conduct a deep dive into how we can better utilize our finances for the benefit of less fortunate citizens within our country.