US Foreign Policy against Terrorism and How Did This Policy Affect US Relation with Saudi Arabia - Essay Example

?US Foreign Policy against Terrorism and How Did This Policy Affect US Relation with Saudi Arabia Table of Contents Introduction 3 A Background of the US Foreign Policy against Terrorism 4 A Discussion about how US Foreign Policy Affected US relation with Saudi Arabia 9 Conclusion 14 References 15 Introduction Terrorism can be viewed as one of the new buzzwords in the context of American politics. The fear of this particular aspect i.e. terrorism has become so much embedded in this present day context that each news story, whether a fire or an industrial accident, encompasses a question regarding linkage with the significant concern of terrorism. In the background of the US domestic along with foreign policy, the new buzzword i.e. terrorism is regarded as a new threat, affecting the economy and the overall financial performance of the nation to a significant extent. It can be apparently observed that there prevails a rampant debate amid various scholars and politicians concerning what actually terrorism means. Theoretically, terrorism is fundamentally described as the unlawful executions of violence perform by an individual or a group. After acquiring a brief idea about the buzzword of terrorism, it can be affirmed from a broader outlook that this buzzword is not always restricted towards performing violent activities rather it entails threat of violence. The terrorism related victims are often described as non-combatants or civilians1. While determining the US foreign policy, one can find the aspect of terrorism to be rampantly addressed. It can be stated that the significant concern of international terrorism has long been witnessed as a domestic along with a foreign based security threat. It is worth mentioning that the execution of fatal events relating to September 11th in the US have noticeably re-energised the focus of the US government towards adopting effective policies for combating terrorism2. Lately, the aspect of terrorism has emerged as an important agenda in the foreign policy of many countries including USA. It can be affirmed that foreign policies often play a decisive role in forming, developing and preserving greater interrelation between various nations throughout the globe. Thus, in this context, the US foreign policy against terrorism can be regarded as forming and advancing superior affiliation with diverse nations across the world3. With this concern, this essay intends to discuss about the foreign policy of the US against terrorism. Moreover, the essay also highlights how this policy has affected the relation of the US with one of the nations belonging to the Middle East i.e. Saudi Arabia. A Background of the US Foreign Policy against Terrorism With regard to analyse the US foreign policy against terrorism, it can be apparently observed that the past administrations of the US have intended towards adopting along with implementing broad assortment of effective measures in order to combat against various crucial concerns. These concerns comprise international terrorism, global cooperation, diplomacy, financial sanctions, military force, covert action and defensive security measures among others. During that particular time period, the application of sanctions was viewed to be one of the tools, which had been executed by the US policy makers for combating against terrorism. The organisations that were supporting the aspect of international terrorism were forbidden from availing any kind of support from the US military forces. In general, the anti-terrorism policy of the US from 1970s to the mid period of 1990s focussed upon punishing and deterring particularly the state sponsors, as they countered to terrorist groups themselves. It is worth mentioning in this similar concern that the formation of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 had made a significant shift in the aforesaid policy. The policy shift was mainly performed by the abovementioned Act in terms of banning the funding, granting visas along with other related material support to Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTO). After the fatal incident of 9/11, the anti-terrorism policy of the US remained much focussed upon preventing attacks from one of the potential terrorist organisations named Al-Qaeda. It can also be viewed that the US based anti-terrorism policy adopted certain effective measures in order to safeguard the homeland from the conduct of any terrorist attack. In this similar concern, the effectual measures can be apparently observed in the form of tightening the border security and lessening the vulnerabilities of crucial infrastructures. Moreover, the other important measures included enhancing support along with the resources that are accessible to intelligence as well as law enforcement and developing consequence management abilities4. With due passage of time, as the political scenario has been altered in modern day context, democratic nations such as the US often face certain conflicting course of actions and goals in their desire towards combating against the significant concern of terrorism. These can be associated with ensuring greater security from the conduct of terrorist attacks in the form of restricting the liberty of an individual or a group of terrorists and preserving individual human rights, freedoms along with democracy. In this similar concern, the efforts made by the democratic nations along with their respective policy makers towards combating against terrorism can be apparently observed as quite complicated due to the existence of a worldwide trend particularly towards various critical factors. These factors entail expanded commerce, deregulation and open borders. One of the major challenges for the policy makers can be identified as the requirement of recognising the perpetrators of a specific terrorist activity and most importantly those individuals who are engaged in training, funding and supporting them through providing sponsorships. After acquiring a brief idea about the aspects for conflicting goals along with course of actions that the democratic nations like the US often face in their desire to combat against terrorism, it can be viewed that the US foreign policy comprised certain vital measures against terrorism. In this regard, one of the measures, which entail by the US foreign policy, can be linked with focussing upon the actions of the terrorist organisations like Al-Qaeda and its associated state supporters along with affiliated networks4. While discussing about the facets of the US foreign policy against the conduct of terrorist activities, the intention of the US government can be easily determined. In this context, the major or the long-term target of the US government is to effectively combat against terrorism in order to ensure foreign and domestic security. According to the US government, this particular long-term target is to be accomplished through crippling the international terrorism, devastation of their infrastructure along with other related support base and reprisal in opposition to those particular states that harbour or support terrorists5. Specially mentioning, certain effective tools relating to the US foreign policy have been identified to play an imperative role in combating against the significant concern of terrorism. These tools comprise diplomacy or constructive engagement, criminal law, public diplomacy, economic sanctions, financial inducements, covert action, extradition or law enforcement cooperation, international conventions and military force. The US foreign policy tool of diplomacy or constructive engagement can be recognised as one of the central constituents especially of the Bush Administration, which has been adopted in response to the incident of September 9/11. This particular tool intended towards generating a worldwide anti-terror coalition in order to apply much pressure upon the terrorists. The aspect of diplomacy or constructive engagement can be duly considered as quite vital in combating against terrorism. This can be justified with reference to the fact that the terrorist groups have rapidly spread their broader reach across the globe. In terms of combating against the terrorist network such as the Al-Qaeda group of Osama Bin Laden, the US has sought cooperative efforts of various nations. The agenda of forming coalition can also be identified to be critically incorporated in the US foreign policy. . It is worth mentioning that effectual counterterrorist diplomacy in this regard would eventually support in tracing the networks operating in any nation of the world by a certain degree, making the combat against terrorism much successful. Such initiative has been taken into concern in the US foreign policy through making deliberate efforts in getting Japan and chief European nations for joining in the US trade along with economic sanctions against Iran4. The other US foreign policy tool i.e. prosecuting individual terrorists in criminal courts is regarded as the other imperative counterterrorist tool. It can be affirmed in this similar concern that the execution of criminal justice system might aid in lessening the crucial concern of terrorism in numerous ways. In this regard, one of the ways can be imprisoning individual terrorist or terrorist groups, which would eventually restrict them to conduct further terrorist attack. On the other hand, the facet of public diplomacy also plays a decisive role in combating against terrorism through the imposition of the impact of public opinion not only upon the governmental performance, but also on the activities perform by the groups who are involved in terrorist acts. In this similar concern, effectual public diplomacy through media might aid in mobilising public opinion, resulting in pressurising the governments to adopt and also to implement appropriate activities against terrorism. On the contrary, media coverage is often viewed to be a vital success measure of a particular terrorist activity. Apart from the above discussed US foreign policy counterterrorism tools, the notion of economic sanctions can also be regarded as the other major tool of combating against terrorism. In preceding years, the adoption along with the execution of this particular tool i.e. economic situations was normally predicated based upon the recognition of a specific nation who actively support or sponsor worldwide terrorism. There pertains a major reason for considering economic sanctions as one of the effective US foreign policy tool against terrorism. This can be justified with reference to the fact that the aforesaid tool generally falls under certain significant categories. These categories comprise restrictions upon foreign assistance, financial access, capital transactions along with foreign exchange, trading, and technological transfer and export credits. It has been viewed that economic sanctions might encompass an overall or partial trade upon economic transactions, deferral of foreign support and limitations on navigation treaty among others. Thus, it can be affirmed that the restrictions on the above mentioned aspects would certainly assist in preventing terrorist attacks by a certain degree5. One of the vital US foreign policy tool against terrorism can be regarded as covert action. Certain important aspects that include infiltration of individual terrorists or terrorist groups along with military operations and intelligence gathering generally involve broad array of covert activities. This particular tool i.e. covert action is identified as a kind of passive supervising nature, which principally aims at determining the prevailing capabilities, vulnerabilities and the intentions of the terrorist based organisations. The determination of these factors ultimately contributes in combating terrorism by a certain degree. It is worth mentioning that the US foreign policy entailed extradition or law enforcement cooperation as one of the effective tools for combating terrorism. It can be apparently observed in this similar concern that international based cooperation in relation to certain fundamental areas like customs control, law enforcement and intelligence activities is regarded as an indispensable pillar particularly of the Bush Administration’s anti-terrorism policy. Amongst all US foreign policy tools, the activities that perform by the military force belonging to the US play a noteworthy role in combating against the significant concern of terrorism by a considerable extent. It can be viewed in this regard that the US had utilised its respective armed forces for retaliation following the conduct of certain terrorist attacks especially by Libya in the year 1986, Iraq in the year 1993 and Osama Bin Laden in the year 1998. The exploitation of the military force by the US proved to be quite beneficial in combating against terrorism through recognising individual terrorist or terrorist groups and the respective locations from where they conduct attacks5. Thus, based on the above discussion, it can be affirmed from a broader outlook that the US foreign policy encompasses the aforementioned tools for combating terrorism. However, the US foreign policy had affected US relation with many Muslim countries especially with Saudi Arabia, which has been discussed in the following section. A Discussion about how US Foreign Policy Affected US relation with Saudi Arabia After acquiring a brief idea about the US foreign policy and its various tools devised to combat against the critical issues of terrorism it can be apparently observed that tensions are arising in the interrelation between the US and Saudi Arabia. In other words, it can be affirmed that these rising tensions in relation to the US foreign policy have eventually affected the US relation with Saudi Arabia t. There are certain reasons associated with the foreign policy of the US that has resulted in affecting its relationship with Saudi Arabia. In this similar context, one of the reasons can be noted as the litany of grievances that possess by Saudi Arabia concerning the US foreign policy especially in the Middle East. This can be justified with reference to the fact that Saudi Arabia complained about the US foreign policy for not approaching Israel for peace talks with the Palestinians. Moreover, Saudi Arabia also had a grievance against the US foreign policy for not making effective backing efforts in order to collapse the President of Syria named Bashar al-Assad. Apart from these, there also exists other reason, which clearly indicates about how the US foreign policy affected the US relation with Saudi Arabia. In this regard, the Saudi royals have criticised that the US did not provided much support to Saudi for Bahrain at the time when it crushed an anti-government uprising in the year 20116. It has been previously observed that the US had better relation especially with Saudi Arabia. However, it can be affirmed that the formation along with the development of the US foreign policy has adversely affected the interrelation between the US and Saudi Arabia. In order to determine about how the US foreign policy affected US relation with Saudi Arabia, it can be viewed that Washington had failed to adopt necessary measures in supporting Saudi Arabia to overcome various discrepancies. While evaluating the unfavourable impact imposed by the US foreign policy upon the interrelation between the US and Saudi Arabia, it has been apparently observed that the US and Saudi Arabia were allies from the time of the declaration of the kingdom in the year 1932. This provided Riyadh a strong military protector and most vitally Washington, a secured oil supplier. It is worth mentioning that the rivalry of The Sunni Muslim Kingdom with an ally belonging to Syria i.e. Shiite Iran has eventually augmented sectarian tensions across the region of the Middle East. In this regard, Saudi Arabia decided to limit the transactions with the US, as the US foreign policy did not adopted any effective measures and further it failed to implement necessary actions on the above discussed rising tensions on Syria. This can be duly considered as one of the major reasons for affecting the US relations with Saudi Arabia by a certain degree7;8 In the circumstance of determining about how the US foreign policy affected the US affiliation with Saudi Arabia, it can be viewed that the incident of 9/11 had changed the outlook of US towards Muslim nations to a great extent which can also been ascertained to create a gap between the relationship of the US and Saudi Arabia This relationship between these countries has been disturbed predominately due to the US rising concern towards combating terrorism. During the preceding few years, it has been apparently observed that the affiliation between the US and Saudi Arabia was strongly based upon the aspect of strong cooperation. This can be justified with reference to the fact that both these nations cooperated amid themselves extensively relating to the fields of law enforcement, security and counterterrorism. Specially mentioning, a growing number of challenges still exist in the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia, which eventually affected the US relation with Saudi Arabia. In this similar context, the challenges can be noted in the form of disagreements prevailing between the two nations i.e. the US and Saudi Arabia. These disagreements can be represented as how to respond the significant concerns of rising sectarianism in Saudi Arabia, the Arab spring and augmenting oil prices due to the financial crisis prevailed in the nation. It can be affirmed from a broader outlook that the position of Obama’s administration in effectively coordinating the US foreign policy in resolving Arab-Israeli conflict which has been the main reason of disappointment especially for Saudi Arabia. This has eventually contributed in affecting its relation of the US with Saudi Arabia. It has been witnessed that the quality of the interrelation of the US and Saudi Arabia has lessened due to the ineffectiveness of the US foreign policy in resolving various sorts of issue that experienced by Saudi Arabia. These issues might be associated with rising tensions in Syria and the emergence of Palestinian conflict among others. It can be affirmed that the US foreign policy had affected US relation with Saudi Arabia based upon one of the realisation of the Saudi regime. In this context, the Saudi regime strongly realised that the US foreign policy failed to control or manage Israel and also not enabled guaranteeing the fulfilment of the Saudi regional based interests. Apart from this particular crucial factor, the refusal of the US in the form of the US foreign policy, supporting Palestinian proposal for statehood also weakened and unfavourably affected the US and Saudi Arabia relationship9. As previously mentioned, there were certain reasons for which the US foreign policy contributed in weakening and affecting the interrelation between the two nations i.e. the US and Saudi Arabia. In this similar concern, one of the reasons can be apparently observed as Saudi Arabia’s restricted impact upon the US foreign policy. As per the understanding or the standpoints of the Arabia regime, the critical issues that directly affected Saudi interests, such as financial, security and political conditions of the nation, eventually contributed in underpinning the affiliation between the US and Saudi Arabia. Specially mentioning, the failure of the US foreign policy in serving Riyadh’s interests effectively also fuelled in affecting the US and Saudi Arabia relationship. In addition, it can be affirmed that the inability of the US foreign policy in performing certain effective actions also led towards deteriorated and weakened US-Saudi Arabia relationship at large. In this regard, these actions comprise countering the influences of Iranian in post-Saddam Iraq, restricting Hezbollah in taking power especially in Lebanon and developing its ongoing efforts towards reconciling the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. It can be stated in this similar concern that the relation between these two nations has been affected at large due to the aforementioned challenges and also for other incapability that possessed by the US foreign policy. In this regard, the Saudis were not satisfied about the decision of Washington to detach Saudi Arabia from the Egyptian President named Hosni Mubarak. Moreover, it has been noted that the Saudis were disappointed regarding the deficiency in progress particularly on Israeli-Palestinian peace procedure. It is worth mentioning that the focus of the US foreign policy was primarily based upon certain significant aspects that include preserving regional security, dismantling terrorist based networks along with restricting the propagation of nuclear weapons rather than serving the interests of Saudi Arabia. These interests can be viewed in the form of pressurising Riyadh, in particular, towards lessening the prices of global oil and adopting along with implementing domestic based political reforms. It can be affirmed that prioritising in serving these interests might reduce the diplomatic tension between the US and Saudi Arabia by a certain degree. After acquiring a brief idea about the factors or the reasons that led the US foreign policy towards weakening or affecting the interrelation between the US and Saudi Arabia, it can be stated from a broader outlook that the varying affiliations specifically with the allies belonging to Middle East might affect the position of the US in the region. Responsively, the US ought to ensure in enhancing along with raising the capabilities of the US foreign policy with the intention of making a dominant position in the region of Middle East. The capabilities of the US foreign policy might be enhanced or raised especially in the form of resolving the rising tensions in Syria, making deliberate efforts in minimising Palestinian conflict and most significantly serving the interests of the Saudi regime effectively among others10. Conclusion Based on the above discussion, it has been ascertained that terrorism or the terrorist attacks had significantly impacted the American politics by a greater extent. This particular impact can be apparently observed in the form of the establishment of the US foreign policy against terrorism. Terrorism is not a new concept for America. The nation experienced a noteworthy terrorist attack i.e. the incident of 9/11, which made the policy makers of the US to critically consider the issue of international terrorism and maximise international support along with cooperation by taking into concern the US national security interests. It has been apparently observed that in the past US administrations had adopted and implemented effective measures in order to combat terrorism. Notably, after the incident of 9/11, the anti-terrorism policy of the US has been viewed to focus much upon preventing the attacks from Al-Qaeda, a terrorist group. It is worth mentioning that certain effective tools of US foreign policy have been executed in order to combat against terrorism. These tools included covert action, military force and public diplomacy among others. The US foreign policy against terrorism had weakened and affected the US-Saudi Arabia relationship. This can be justified with reference to the fact that the policy was not able to serve the interests of the Saudi regime effectively. In this regard, the interests include resolving the conflicts held at Syria and not making any deliberate effort towards approaching Israeli-Palestinian peace procedure among others. Thus, it can be concluded that the continuous inabilities of the US foreign policy based on the aforementioned aspects would eventually affect the dominant position of the US in the region of Saudi Arabia. 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