Bill clinton’s doctrine of enlargement of foreign policies

During his inauguration from 1993 to 2001, United States President William Jefferson Clinton, also known as Bill Clinton, promoted democracy and improved foreign relationships by using non-aggressive policies. These policies were based on Clinton’s belief and principle, which was also known as the Doctrine of Enlargement. The Doctrine of Enlargement asked for a free competition in global trade and promoting democracy with minimum intervention in foreign political affairs while America to be remaining as the global leader.

Clinton had planned and created this doctrine of enlargement before he inaugurated as the President of United States. Hiseducationat the Georgetown School of Foreign Service also marked his specialty in dealing with foreign affairs. In a speech he made before the congress on February 17, 1993, only a month since his inauguration, Clinton gave his view on global economy: Standing as we are on the edge of a new century, we know that economic growth depends as never before on opening up new markets overseas and expanding the volume of world trade.

And so, we will insist on fair trade rules in international markets as a part of a national economic strategy to expand trade, including the successful completion of the latest round of world trade talks and the successful completion of a North American Free Trade Agreement with appropriate safeguards for our workers and for theenvironment. In his speech, Clinton implied that a free global economy is the key to American’s economical growth. During his presidency, Clinton will follow his doctrine and reform the American financial system and foreign relationships.

When he first became President in 1993, Bill Clinton had made decisions in foreign affairs that damaged his reputation, although he did not cause the problem in the first place. One of which was the humanitarian mission in Somalia sent by the previous President George W. Bush a few weeks before Clinton’s inauguration. Since the American troops showed little effect on solving the situation in Somalia, Clinton withdrew the entire force next year, which the embarrassment led to the resignation of the Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and damaged Clinton’s reputation.

Yet Clinton had only withdrew the troops in order to decrease deficiency and unnecessary deficit. His action is also based on his beliefs of minimizing intervention in foreign affairs. Despite of some missteps in issues in Somalia early on in his presidency, Clinton did bring some exceptional accomplishments in foreign affairs. In 1994, he successfully persuaded Russia to withdraw its troops from Baltic Republic of Estonia and Latvia. In dealing with Russia, Clinton help created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

It restricted the number of troops and nuclear weapons allowed into the Russian regions. Together with the Nunn-Lugar Act, which reduced Russia’s nuclear weapons, Clinton helped unbuilt the tension developing between Europe’s greater powers, thus decreasing the possibility of a devastating world war of nuclear weapons in the near future. Clinton’s Doctrine of Enlargement also planed to keep peace in the world by international alliances and intervene foreign affairs only if necessary. An organization that represents such qualities is the United Nations.

In his remarks to the U. N. general assembly in the White House on October 22, 1995, Clinton gave a speech of his thoughts about the United Nations: The U. N. helps the peacemakers, the care providers, the defenders of freedom andhuman rights, the architects of economic prosperity, and the protectors of our planet to spread the risk, share the burden and increase the impact of our common efforts . . . the United Nations has not ended war, but it has made it less likely, and helped many nations to turn from war to peace.

The United Nations has not stopped human suffering, but it has healed the wounds and lengthened the lives of millions of human beings. The United Nations has not banished repression orpovertyfrom the Earth, but it has advanced the cause of freedom and prosperity on every continent. The United Nations has not been all that we wished it would be, but it has been a force for good and a bulwark against evil. From his speech Clinton explained the importance of the United Nations is and what effects it has brought and can bring to the world.

Clinton actively participated in the United Nations during his presidency as a fulfillment of his doctrine. He believed that reforming the United Nations is an efficient way to make the world a better and safer place. William Clinton, as a part of his Doctrine of Enlargement, encouraged free global trade, which America has always not been able to do. He promoted several plans to allow free trade with other countries. One of which was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in December 1993, which removed the trading barriers with Mexico and Canada.

The NAFTA was an extended version of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, and the purpose was to foster trade between the three countries by lowering the tariffs, and thus creating American jobs over the borders. While the agreement sounded beneficial to the American economy, some argued that it would lead to moving American jobs to Mexico, where the wages and working conditions were lower than that of United States. Some also argued that the lack of antipollution laws in Mexico would also damage the environment.

President Clinton made his remarks to such arguments in the White House: So when people say that this trade agreement is just about how to move jobs to Mexico so nobody can make a living, how do they explain the fact that Mexicans keep buying more products made in America every year? Go out and tell the American people that. Mexicancitizens with lower incomes spend moremoney– real dollars, not percentage of their income — more money on American products than Germans, Japanese, and Canadians. That is a fact. And there will be more if they have more money to spend. That is what expanding trade is all about.

His response to the anti free-trade argument explained how the NAFTA would bring more financial benefit to the American economy, and losing some jobs is inevitable. The trading deficit of United States with Mexico has decreased from 5. 7 billion dollars in 1987 to 5. 4 billion surplus in 1993 after efforts lowering the tariff by the President Salinas of Mexico, even though they had lower wages than many other nations. Mexico was also the largest consumer of US products per capita. Clinton also believed that the first five years of NAFTA would create a millions jobs by looking at previous trends.

The side agreement of the NAFTA would also sanction countries that did not enforce the environmental laws. The establishment of NAFTA was America’s attempt to prosper from the global economy by lowering tariffs, thus creating jobs. While the NAFTA promoted trading with Mexico and Canada, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) focused on promoting trade with Asia-Pacific countries. President Clinton was also actively involved in the cooperation. Currently the Member Economies consisted of United States, Australia, China, Canada, Japan, Russia, and other countries to a total of twenty-one countries.

The three pillars of the APEC were trade liberty, business facilitation, and economic cooperation, which were the also thegoalsof the Doctrine of Enlargement. Clinton started the trend of annual APEC Economic Leaders’ Meetings, which increased the significance of the APEC. The meetings generated ideas to reduce trading barrier among the country members. The APEC had reduced the average trade barrier from 16. 9% at the beginning of establishment to only 5. 5% in 2004. Clinton’s contribution to APEC helped promoted global trade, which was a part of his doctrine.

Clinton’s administration also changed the relationship between America and China. American government has been reluctant to trade freely with China because of its human right violations and its influence on local industries. In 1999, however, Clinton signed an agreement with China to lower trade barriers. Although both democrats and republicans hesitated to support free trade with China, the congress voted in 2000 to share permanent normal trading with China and support China’s World Trade Organization membership. This soon became beneficial to the America’s economy as it opened a billion people market.

Aside from promoting global trade, Bill Clinton also improved foreign relations by offering financial aid. During his presidency, Clinton organized several loans to help out countries in trouble. In the January of 1995, he organized a 50 billion loan to the Mexican government to overcome a financial crisis, which the price Mexican currency peso drops significantly. The Mexican government repaid all the money in 1995, three years before the proposed schedule. The International Monetary Fund together with the World Bank and Japan organized a 17. 1 billion dollar loan despite the unpopularity.

In 1997 to 1998 Clinton helped also a currency crisis in Thailand, South Korea, and several other Asian countries by giving more power to the International Monetary Fund, assisting developing economies to build regulations, and asking private sectors to assist the situation. Clinton helped other countries that were financially struggling by organizing loans, thus improving the global economy and relations. Clinton’s administration proved to be a success inglobalizationby promoting free trade, reducing mass destructive weapons, and offering assistance to countries in financial crisis.

These achievements were based on the beliefs of Clinton’s Doctrine of Enlargement. Bill Clinton was the first democratic president for over thirty years to be reelected for the second term of office.

Bibliography

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