Shayri.com  

Go Back   Shayri.com > Stories/Quotes/Anecdotes > Inspiring Stories

Reply
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
From the writings of a Nobel Peace Prize Recipient
Old
  (#1)
Mann
Registered User
Mann is just really niceMann is just really niceMann is just really niceMann is just really nice
 
Offline
Posts: 521
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: New Delhi
Rep Power: 18
From the writings of a Nobel Peace Prize Recipient - 5th January 2015, 01:03 PM

IN THE FIELD of international affairs, it’s dangerous to extrapolate from the experiences of a single country. In its history, geography, culture, and conflicts, each nation is unique. And yet in many ways Indonesia serves as a useful metaphor for the world beyond our borders—a world in which globalization and sectarianism, poverty and plenty, modernity and antiquity constantly collide.

Indonesia also provides a handy record of U.S. foreign policy over the past fifty years. In broad outline at least, it’s all there: our role in liberating former colonies and creating international institutions to help manage the post–World War II order; our tendency to view nations and conflicts through the prism of the Cold War; our tireless promotion of American-style capitalism and multinational corporations; the tolerance and occasional encouragement of tyranny, corruption, and environmental degradation when it served our interests; our optimism once the Cold War ended that Big Macs and the Internet would lead to the end of historical conflicts; the growing economic power of Asia and the growing resentment of the United States as the world’s sole superpower; the realization that in the short term, at least, democratization might lay bare, rather than alleviate, ethnic hatreds and religious divisions—and that the wonders of globalization might also facilitate economic volatility, the spread of pandemics, and terrorism.

In other words, our record is mixed—not just in Indonesia but across the globe. At times, American foreign policy has been farsighted, simultaneously serving our national interests, our ideals, and the interests of other nations. At other times American policies have been misguided, based on false assumptions that ignore the legitimate aspirations of other peoples, undermine our own credibility, and make for a more dangerous world.

Such ambiguity shouldn’t be surprising, for American foreign policy has always been a jumble of warring impulses. In the earliest days of the Republic, a policy of isolationism often prevailed—a wariness of foreign intrigues that befitted a nation just emerging from a war of independence. “Why,” George Washington asked in his famous Farewell Address, “by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?” Washington’s view was reinforced by what he called America’s “detached and distant situation,” a geographic separation that would permit the new nation to “defy material injury from external annoyance.”

Moreover, while America’s revolutionary origins and republican form of government might make it sympathetic toward those seeking freedom elsewhere, America’s early leaders cautioned against idealistic attempts to export our way of life; according to John Quincy Adams, America should not go “abroad in search of monsters to destroy” nor “become the dictatress of the world.” Providence had charged America with the task of making a new world, not reforming the old; protected by an ocean and with the bounty of a continent, America could best serve the cause of freedom by concentrating on its own development, becoming a beacon of hope for other nations and people around the globe.


Barack Obama; The Audacity of Hope


Mann
   
Reply With Quote
Old
  (#2)
sameer'shaad'
~$uper M0der@tor~
sameer'shaad' is the among the best Shayars at Shayri.comsameer'shaad' is the among the best Shayars at Shayri.comsameer'shaad' is the among the best Shayars at Shayri.comsameer'shaad' is the among the best Shayars at Shayri.comsameer'shaad' is the among the best Shayars at Shayri.comsameer'shaad' is the among the best Shayars at Shayri.comsameer'shaad' is the among the best Shayars at Shayri.comsameer'shaad' is the among the best Shayars at Shayri.comsameer'shaad' is the among the best Shayars at Shayri.comsameer'shaad' is the among the best Shayars at Shayri.comsameer'shaad' is the among the best Shayars at Shayri.com
 
sameer'shaad''s Avatar
 
Offline
Posts: 8,417
Join Date: Feb 2006
Rep Power: 61
5th January 2015, 01:31 PM

nice sharing mann .................................................. .... do keep sharing informative notes like this..

thanks


Shaad...
   
Reply With Quote
Old
  (#3)
Mann
Registered User
Mann is just really niceMann is just really niceMann is just really niceMann is just really nice
 
Offline
Posts: 521
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: New Delhi
Rep Power: 18
5th January 2015, 01:37 PM

Thank you so much shaad for the read and appreciation.


Mann
   
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump



Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.5
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
vBulletin Skin developed by: vBStyles.com