Original scientific paper
US FOREIGN POLICY DURING TRUMAN’S ADMINISTRATION
Ante Barišić
orcid.org/0000-0002-3187-0514
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
An analysis of the relations among the government departments traditionally responsible for American foreign policy at the dawn of the cold war during President Harry Truman’s mandate, enables us to draw tentative conclusions regarding the policies and activities of the administration of today’s President George W. Bush II. Bush’s administration is expected to come up with an urgent definition of the new direction of the US foreign policy, and provide the corresponding means and resources required for its implementation in this era of globalization, postmilitarism and the singular role that US plays in world affairs. Using as his starting point the assumption that without an awareness of the significance of a transformation of state power (the transformation carried out by the Truman administration), it is not possible to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the direction and the speed of the changes the Bush administration is to initiate in the foreign policy arena. The author first reviews the genesis of the goals of the US foreign policy during Truman’s presidency, then looks into the manner and the forms of identification of foreign policy objectives and, finally, deals with the strategies mapped out for the realization of the identified foreign policy goals. By reviewing this important period in the history of US foreign policy, the author outlines all the major issues confronting the designers of today’s American foreign policy and thus provides some cumulative and comparative insights.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
24933
URI
Publication date:
4.6.2001.
Visits: 6.108 *