ULI358U-AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
Chapter 6: American Foreign Policy and Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era, 1990-2001
Post-Cold War Transition
George H. W. Bush and the New World Order
As the Cold War drew to a close in the late 1980s, references to a new world order came to be made by different leaders.
The first one came from the last Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. In his address to the United National (UN) General Assembly in late 1988, Gorbachev asserted that world progress is possible only through a joint movement toward a new world order
The U.S. administration initially remained cautious to Gorbachev's calls in 1988. However, the Malta Summit between the U.S. President Bush and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev in December 1989 gave a new impetus to the discussions on new world order. In the summit, the U.S. and the Soviet leaders declared an end to the Cold War.
The second and more commonly known reference to a new world order came after over a year from President George H. W. Bush amidst the aggression in the Persian Gulf (see the section on the Gulf War below). The U.S. led the creation of a large coalition of countries within a limited time frame against Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and Hussein’s continuing aggression in the region.
In the transition period, President Bush in a more subtle way also utilized the rhetoric of American exceptionalism, especially in his domestic speeches. American exceptionalism refers to the history of the U.S. as different from other nations that are based on liberty, egalitarianism, and laissez-faire. It also refers to the idea that the US has a unique mission to defend and spread these values in the world.
International Crises and US Intervention
This section overviews the major international crises that the U.S. intervened throughout the 1990s. These include the Persian Gulf War, humanitarian crises in Somalia and Haiti, the Balkan Wars, the peace processes in the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
Persian Gulf War
On August 2, 1990, the Iraqi army has marched into Iraq's oil-rich neighbour Kuwait. Iraq greatly overwhelmed Kuwait's defence forces, therefore quickly completed the invasion and annexed the country. A few days later, UN Security Council Resolution 661 imposed international sanctions on trade with Iraq.
Hussein soon gave signals that he would not stop at Kuwait, and was ready to keep going to dominate the entire region. After the invasion of Kuwait, the Iraqi leader massed his army along Kuwait's border with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia was not only a close U.S. ally but also strategically very important given the high scale of Saudi oil production. With Kuwait and Saudi oil, Hussein
would have controlled 40 per cent of the world's oil reserves.
President George Bush announced that the U.S. would launch a mission in defence of Saudi Arabia. The U.S. built a large coalition for the mission under the codename Operation Desert Shield. The mission led by the U.S. included half a million troops from 37 countries.
In late November, UN Security Council passed Resolution 678 that set a deadline of 15 January 1991 for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait or face military action if it failed to comply. The U.S.-led offensive against Iraqi forces under the codename Operation Desert Storm was launched on January 17. The Gulf War lasted forty-three days until Iraq was defeated and withdrew from Kuwait.
Somalia and Central Africa
Driven by the concerns at home, Clinton's presidential campaign focused on the economy and domestic politics. However, soon after taking office, Clinton found that it is difficult to disregard international crises. Since the start of Clinton's presidency, various ethnic, civil and religious conflicts have erupted not only in U.S.' near abroad but also in other parts of the world.
The end of the Cold War and the bipolarity encouraged fragmentation in different ways. First, the retreat of the Soviet Union revived some of the dormant nationalist, ethnic or religious tensions in many countries and regions. Second, with the end of the Cold War, some leaders aspired regional hegemony and accordingly pursued aggressive policies. The Clinton Administration consistently faced what, if any, role the U.S. should play in containing these conflicts. Therefore, Clinton had to balance domestic politics responses to international crises.
Somalia was one of the first countries to attract international attention in the post-Cold War years and the U.S. involvement in Somalia predates Clinton's presidency. Within the Cold War rivalry, Somalia was first aligned with the Soviet Union and later with the U.S. as its northern neighbour and rival Ethiopia changed sides. Soon after the Cold War ended, opposition groups overthrew the military junta led by General Siad Barre and various armed factions began competing to take control. The state was unable to operate. Coupled with years of drought the already impoverished country drifted into a state of chaos and starvation.
President George H. W. Bush ordered in August 1992 an emergency U.S. airlift of food to Somalia. However, it soon became clear that more needed to be done to address this humanitarian crisis. After having evaluated the alternatives, President Bush decided to send U.S. combat troops to lead an international force to Somalia. The troops were dispatched in December 1992 as part of a humanitarian mission dubbed Operation Restore Hope to distribute food, restore and maintain order.
President George H. W. had been defeated in re-election. His successor President William J. Clinton reduced the number of U.S. troops, therefore relying mainly on UN forces to maintain law and order. There was no easy solution insight, and the rising UN casualties made it only more complicated to the Clinton Administration.
The Somalia experience taught an important lesson to President Clinton about deployment U.S. forces to far-off countries that had no obvious links to U.S. national interests.
Haiti
Haiti had its first democratic elections in 1990. However, its first democratically elected president the Reverend Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted by a violent military takeover less than a year after. Tens of thousands of Haitians tried to escape by boat. Initially, Coast Guard took fleeing Haitians to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo. However, as the number of asylum seekers mounted President Bush directed the Coast Guard to turn back any Haitian “boat people”.
Clinton, as a presidential candidate, criticized President Bush’s Haiti policy. However, Clinton changed his position once he was elected president and continued in Bush’s line.
In 1993, the U.S. brokered an agreement between Aristide and the military regime. The military accepted Aristide's return to power in exchange for a pardon to military leadership. However, an armed anti-Aristide mob met the U.S.S. Harlan County – the U.S. ship that carries the peacekeepers to oversee the transition – at the dock. The ship had to return to the U.S. This marked one of the lowest points in Clinton's foreign policy.
As the unrest in Haiti continued, President Clinton decided to intervene in 1994 and issued an ultimatum to the junta regime. This angered the Congress as Clinton did not seek the approval of the Congress. A delegation headed by the former president Jimmy Carter went to Haiti to negotiate a peaceful settlement. The military leadership left Haiti just before the American forces landed to restore order.
The Balkan Wars
The violent breakup of Yugoslavia in the post-cold War years became another important test case for the Clinton Administration. Yugoslavia was established in the aftermath of World War I that embodied various ethnic and religious groups.
Together with the end of the Cold War, the constituting republics of Yugoslavia began to disintegrate. Slovenia and Croatia became the first ones to declare their independence in 1991. While Serbian forces intervened, they failed to prevent the breakup. Most European countries granted diplomatic recognition to Slovenia and Croatia and both countries were admitted to the United Nations.
In the meantime, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence in 1992 and the Serbs shifted their focus here. Unlike in Slovenia and Croatia, the war in Bosnian did not end quickly. The severity of violence took international attention.
With the end of the Cold War, President George H. W. Bush did not consider Yugoslavia to be a high priority for the U.S. and left it to Europeans to handle. During the presidential campaign, Clinton criticized this policy of President Bush and called for military intervention. Clinton became president as the siege of Sarajevo had been underway and the atrocities were reported globally in the press.
In the meantime, the Serbs continued their offensive against the Muslims and engaged in a massive ethnic cleansing. The massacre at Srebrenica in 1995 prompted President Clinton and under the U.S. leadership, NATO launched airstrikes against Serbian targets. This was followed by a ground offensive by Bosnian and Croat forces. The three sides agreed to start negotiations at the U.S. air force base at Dayton, Ohio that would end the war. The Dayton Accords led to a cease-fire in 1996 and NATO troops were deployed. Clinton extended the NATO mission in Bosnia after he was re-elected in 1996.
While the Dayton Accords ended the Bosnian War, peace at the Balkan Peninsula did not last long. After Bosnia, this time the Serbs turned their attention to Kosovo. In 1998, tension raised in Kosovo. In 1999, the U.S. and several European countries invited the rival factions for negotiations in Rambouillet, France. Clinton threatened the Serbs with sending forces to Kosovo. When the talks broke down, NATO had to carry out its threats. With U.S. support NATO’s bombing campaign against the Serbian targets began in March 1999. Following NATO’s 78-day air campaign the violence was over.
The Middle East Peace Process
In the early 1990s, there was an enabling environment to resume the Middle East peace process. With the end of the Cold War, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) lost its strong supporter, the Soviet Union. Besides, the PLO leader Yasser Arafat made a costly decision to support Iraq during the Gulf War. On the Israeli side, Yitzhak Rabin's Labor Party replaced the hard-line Likud government in 1992
The secret talks between Israel and the PLO started under Norwegian auspices in 1993. The two sides signed the Oslo I Accord at Washington D.C. in September, which started what came to be known as the Oslo (peace) process. During this process, President Clinton was deeply involved in the negotiations not only with Israel and the PLO but also with other parties including Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Israel and the PLO signed a second agreement, Oslo II Accord in 1995. The two Oslo Accords, however, did not end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Northern Ireland
When Clinton was elected president, the violent conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles, had been going on for decades. However, the ceasefire in 1994 paved the way to start negotiations. President Clinton appointed former Senator George Mitchell as his Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.
In late 1995, President Clinton himself visited Northern Ireland and spoke in favour of the peace process. The talks continued on-and-off in the next couple of years. Some of Clinton Administration's decisions during this process met with fury in the UK and the tension between the two old allies rose.
The U.S. involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process is an example of a soft power intervention. As defined by Joseph Nye, soft power is the ability to affect others by co-optive means rather than coercion (hard power).
New Global Agenda
Once Clinton was elected president in 1992, he developed a program of economic recovery. The program included both a deficit-reduction package and also a series of investments to stimulate the economy. Clinton saw that the world was changing and uplifting the American economy required more than domestic measures. On the one hand, the economies of Western European and East Asian countries were growing rapidly. More countries adopted liberal reforms for organizing economic activities and were competing in the export markets.
Globalization is the increasing interaction and integration between companies, economies and governments across the world. Globalization results in growing interdependence.
Clinton repeatedly emphasized that globalization was the dominant paradigm in international affairs. Therefore, the U.S. can't separate the domestic from the international. Clinton saw that the U.S. economy's integration into this ever-widening global economy was also necessary for its global leadership. According to Clinton economic globalization would allow the U.S. to better prepare to compete in the international economy and also access to the benefits of the new markets.
In accordance with this, President Clinton established the National Economic Council to coordinate economic relations, economic policy objectives, and to be a counterpart to National Security Council
Geo-Economics and Trade Liberalization
Unlike President Bush, whose modus operandi was geopolitical, the policy focus of the Clinton administration was economic (domestic or global). This led to a new geo- economic foreign policy, which envisioned expanding free-trading world under the U.S. leadership. Productivity and growth rates became the new symbols of power, and
international trade agreements were now the new encounters of economic superpowers.
The first achievement was the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in 1992. The NAFTA is a comprehensive trade agreement. Since it went into effect in 1994, the NAFTA gradually eliminated most tariffs, barriers and restrictions to trade and investment. The agreement effectively created one of the world's largest free trade blocs.
Despite objections, President Clinton successfully built bipartisan support for the NAFTA in the Congress. There were mainly two groups of objections. The first group argued that the agreement would encourage U.S. manufacturers to relocate in Mexico, where there is cheap labour, thereby resulting in the loss of jobs. The second group criticized the NAFTA for rewarding Mexico's one- party government, which had been neglecting the impoverishment of its citizen.
In addition to the NAFTA, the U.S. also became actively involved in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). APEC was established in 1989 among 12 Pacific countries, including the U.S., to act as the main economic forum.
A final issue in trade liberalization is the ratification of the latest General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). GATT was established as a multilateral free trade agreement in 1948 and its provisions were revised over the years in several rounds. The final Uruguay Round to revise GATT had begun in 1986 and expanded the GATT’s competencies to new areas including services, capital, and intellectual property.
One of the most significant changes was the establishment of the
World Trade Organization (WTO) to oversee trade practices and enforce the rules. Initially, there were objections against the provisions for the WTO.
G-7/G-8 and G-20
The Clinton Administration also took part in establishing and expanding international economic cooperation. One such initiative is the expansion of what had been the Group of Seven (G-7).
As the Asian financial crisis was unfolding President Clinton made calls to organize a larger group of countries during the 1997 APEC meeting to respond to the crisis and also reinforce the global financial architecture. In response, the U.S. Treasury organized what came to be called the Group of Twenty-Two (G-22),
Democracy Promotion
Another important aspect of President Clinton's foreign policy was his emphasis on democracy and its promotion worldwide. There are mainly two reasons behind this.
First is the uncertainty that has emerged since the end of the Cold War.
The second reason links to American exceptionalism. Clinton emphasized American exceptionalism like his predecessor George H. W. Bush. The idea of American exceptionalism gives the US the mission to transform the world. And the U.S. democracy promotion follows this unique role to play.
Not everyone in the U.S. shared the Clinton administration's eagerness for democracy promotion. Many questioned how promoting democracy in far-flung countries was connected to U.S. economic and even security interests. Internal rivalries, conflicts, and even retreat in democratic gains that were taking place in these countries were not helpful either. Finally, human rights activists confronted President Clinton for subordinating economic ties (e.g. China) and alliances (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Egypt) to a call for human rights and therefore practising a double standard in its democracy promotion.
Relations with Major Actors
U.S. Relations with Russia
The relations with Russia in the aftermath of the Cold War was of central concern for the U.S. and in particular for Clinton Administration. Clinton's focus has been on domestic renewal and he linked his domestic policies with the global economy. Clinton wanted to replace Cold War confrontation with global economic competition.
For Clinton to realize his goals, relations with Russia had to be normalized and fostered. Russia would transform from a political adversary to a global economic competitor. This required Russia to become politically and economically a stable country.
By the early 1990s, Russia was in economic dismay and its transition in the post-Cold War was enormous and difficult. Besides, the outbreak of old ethnic tensions, nationalism, the threat of Communist resurgence and secessionist movements in many of the former Soviet Union bloc jeopardized President Yeltsin's reform program. The questions for the U.S. and more generally for the West was whether to let Russia flounder and fail or help its former adversary to grow economically and become a politically stable country.
Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin did not see eye to eye on everything. For instance, Yeltsin regarded NATO’s expansion to the east as a threat because it had been created as a military alliance in opposition to the Soviet Union. The two leaders also disagreed on Yugoslavia. However, they agreed on the design of the post-Cold War Russia.
Euro-Atlantic Relations and NATO
An important question in the aftermath of the Cold War concerned the relations with Europe. The U.S. and the European Community signed the Transatlantic Declaration
on EC-US Relations in 1990 and the New Transatlantic Agenda in 1995 that set common goals and defined common interests in various areas.
The integration of European countries, on the one hand, has been a welcoming development for the U.S. This has two reasons. First, the increasing number of European countries embracing liberal democratic norms and the market economy would benefit the U.S. as much as the Europeans. Second, the integration of European countries prevents any potential conflict among these countries. This, in return, has a stabilizing influence in the region.
Throughout the 1990s, European countries moved even closer. In 1993, members of the European Community established the European Union (EU) and in 1999, they adopted the common currency Euro. Indeed, in 1993, the European Union established the Common Foreign and Security Policy to encourage better foreign policy coordination among its member states. In 1999, the role of a High Representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy was created to coordinate the EU’s foreign policy tools and steer its foreign and security policy on behalf of the EU.
However, more worrying for the U.S. were the Europeans' efforts to establish European Security and Defense Identity. In 1998, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac agreed at St. Malo Summit to bolster the EU's capacity for autonomous military action with credible forces to respond to international crises. This was mainly in response to the violent breakup of Yugoslavia as many thought that the EU and member states have failed in preventing the conflict. Europeans' security and defence capacity would be 'separable but not separate' from NATO. It was still vague how the European countries would achieve this and that the leaders made a due emphasis to act in conformity with their respective obligations in NATO. Nevertheless, the developments were troubling for the U.S. concerning the role and the relevance of NATO.
Europe's quest for autonomous security and defence capability has become an issue for concern in the U.S. While these concerns were voiced by high-level officials in U.S. Administration, the NATO enlargement and the war in Kosovo showed us that the two sides are still able to define common threats, interests and responses.
The desire of the former Soviet states to join NATO served as another indication of NATO's remaining relevance. President Clinton supported NATO's expansion to the east as he thought that NATO would bring a positive impact on the stability of these newly independent countries. With the dissolution of Warsaw Pact, there was a power vacuum in Eastern Europe and it would be best if NATO filled this vacuum.
Russia reacted to NATO’s decision to expand to the east. Therefore, President Clinton sought Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s consent for NATO
expansion. The solution was the establishment of a bilateral cooperation program with former Warsaw Pact called Partnership for Peace that was agreed in 1993. If these partnerships were successful, then the states would be considered for full NATO membership. Yeltsin first opposed this program but later accepted NATO expansion and Partnership for Peace in exchange for a separate treaty with Russia. At the end of the decade the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO. While some other NATO members wanted Romania and Slovenia to also join along, Clinton thought that a big expansion could dilute NATO's power and therefore wanted to limit the first wave of expansion to three countries. A final issue with NATO was the need to define a new mission and area of operations in the post-Cold War. NATO's military interventions first in Bosnia and later in Kosovo in the breakup of Yugoslavia showed that NATO would intervene beyond the borders of its member states.