by Tom Honest

Created on: December 15, 2009

There are two rival philosophies inside the United States on foreign policy, and the give and take between these two philosophies is often what ultimately dictates US foreign policy. The first philosophy is what, for simplicity's sake, I am going to call multilateralism, or the belief that the United States is just another member of a world community, and should not have special powers and authority without the consent of the rest of the nations of the world. The second philosophy is, by the necessity of common sense, the polar opposite of the first, Unilateralism.  American Unilateralists start with the belief that America is the greatest nation in the world, in terms of military power, influence, morality, and virtually everything else. Unilateralists use this belief to justify unilateral actions, such as President Bush's invasion of Iraq without the approval of the United Nations.

As indicated by the previous sentence, President Bush was a staunch unilateralist during his time in office. This was a departure from the very multilateralist policies of his predecessor, Bill Clinton. President Bush stated on many occasions that the policies of the United States were necessary for world security, but it was rare that he actually garnered support amongst the rest of the world for those policies. The first sign of this departure from multilateralism came from the US announcing its unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1997, an agreement between President Clinton and four former Soviet states that agreed not to develop missiles designed to shoot down nuclear missiles. The agreement was originally between the United States and the Soviets during the cold war, and had been adapted by the Clinton administration and the previously mentioned four former Soviet states after the fall of the Soviet Union.

In December of 2001, the Bush administration announced the intent of the United States to withdraw from this treaty (a six month withdrawal notice was required); the first time in recent history the US has pulled out of a major arms treaty. Withdrawing from the treaty allowed the Bush administration to create the Missile Defense Agency, the exact thing the treaty had been meant to prevent.

While unilateral actions can be beneficial, appropriate, and even necessary at times, an entire foreign policy based on the fundamentals of elitist (the, “America is the best country in the world” mentality) unilateralism can be very dangerous

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