911 event

The 911 terrorist attacks’ influence on American foreign policy

Hubert

911 terrorist attack, the most influential international event happened in the first year of 21st century, was thought as destructive as the attack in Pearl Harbor; and make American politics, economy, society and psychology change seriously. This change also had some impact on American foreign policy, especially in the beginning of the event when opposition and precaution to terrorism became the primary goal of American national security and foreign and domestic affairs. No matter how we evaluate American foreign policy in the past ten years, opposition and precaution to terrorism must be the important or even most important factor of it. From the 911 terrorist attack to launching global anti-terrorism war; from invading Afghanistan and Iraq to American political and military interference policy on the North Africa and the middle east ; and we can see the influence of terrorism everywhere.

In detail, the 911 terrorist attacks has such impact on American foreign policy:

Firstly, the 911 terrorist attacks influence the relationship between American foreign policy and terrorism. American foreign policy and anti-America terrorism used to have close contact. After the happening of the 911 terrorist attacks, many people are thinking about why terrorists will hate and attack America. Though some people think American democracy, freedom, prosperity brought up the jealous thought of many Religious extremists, more people hold the view that it is American foreign policy and international prestige cause the increasing of anti-America emotion. Especially the American troops stationing in the Arab countries , unconditional supporting for Israel and sanctions and opposing a number of Islamic countries , not only are some of the main excuse of anti-American terrorist organization , but also the main reason why many Muslims hate the United States. However, after the happening of 911 terrorist attack, American government rapidly established Global Counter-Terrorism Coalition by the standard of anti-terrorism. And the subject-object relation between terrorism and American foreign policy had changed. Terrorism changed from a consequence of American foreign policy to a important factor that will influence it.

Secondly, the 911 terrorist attacks influence the international environment. Before the occurrence of the 911 terrorist attack, the World is in the post- Cold War era ,which mostly reflected from acceleration of economic globalization , highlighting United States’ the unipolar status , thinking of multilateralism’s Prevailing. The more important is that every country around the world including America thought ideological competition rather than military or war is the main way of Shaping the international order. Because The Soviet Union was not lost to the U.S. in the military, but in the political system and ideology. But 911 incident has on the one hand improve the non-state actors’ importance in the international system, and at the same time show the world the vulnerability of the United States , leading to rapid decline of America's national confidence and international status. And we can say, no matter how America react when 911 incident broke out , the U.S. position in the international community must be dropped.

Thirdly, the 911 terrorist attacks changed American foreign policies’ priorities. According to the 1999 " New Century U.S. National Security Strategy ",President Clinton announced, the national interests of the United States are divided into three categories : first, the vital interests , the United States and its allies territorial security , U.S. lives and property of citizens and the United States economic prosperity and infrastructure security, etc. ; second, important benefit, the tranquility of United States and well-being of citizens as well as the nature of the world in which the United States involved in ; Third, humanitarian and other benefits , mainly referring to the maintenance and spreading of American values ​​, including support for democratization , promotion of human rights and uphold the rule of law . In this classification, the threat of terrorism had been in the second sequence. But, the 911 terrorist attacks made anti-terrorism become American vital interest. Actually, the 911 terrorist attacks also changed other countries’ awareness of the threat of terrorism. From Clinton administration, the United States began to regarded terrorist threats and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction issues in the post- Cold War era as its two major threats, but other countries, most only understand the seriousness of these issues , but didn’t make effective action. After the 911 terrorist attacks, other countries’ began to attach importance to the threat of terrorism, and began to regarded anti-terrorism as an important safety work. This fact constitutes the background of U.S. global anti-terrorism war concept’s presenting and practicing.

Fourthly, maintain a clear stance on the Taiwan issue. American government clearly knew that United States is unable to complete the tasks of counter-terrorism and non-proliferation without the support from international society. Therefore, adjusting the Bush administration initially provocative Taiwan policy , pleasing ( at least not angering ) Chinese government to fight for Chinese support on the U.S. anti-terrorism and non-proliferation is a sensible approach. The Bush administration gradually sharpen its "Taiwan independence" policy on the issue. Before the attacks ,the United states’ stance on Taiwan independence are vague , and it said " not support" "Taiwan independence" , so that people have a lot of space to interpret. After the attacks, Bush claimed that there is no difference between "unsupported" and "no" ; all of a sudden it greatly compressed people’s space of Interpretation. In short, the United States take a clear policy toward Taiwan after the attacks, rather than the previous ambiguous policy.

Any American president and any U.S. administration’ goal is to maintain the hegemony of the United States. But the means may differ just because of the international environment and the changes of strength in the United States. And the climax of the U.S. global anti-terrorism war has finally come to an end, American focus will be put on dealing with domestic problems and potential strategic competitors’ challenges. However, this is not the final solution to counter-terrorism issues , and may be just a beginning of a new round of robbers and soldiers game.

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