Foreign Relations of USGR

## The Foreign Policy/Relations of USGR

The officially stated goals of the **foreign policy of the United States** of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the *Foreign Policy Agenda* of the Department of State, are "to build and sustain a more democratic, secure, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community". The United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs states as some of its jurisdictional goals: "export controls, including nonproliferation of nuclear technology and nuclear hardware; measures to foster commercial interaction with foreign nations and to safeguard American business abroad; international commodity agreements; international education; protection of American citizens abroad; and expulsion". U.S. foreign policy and foreign aid have been the subject of much debate, praise, and criticism, both domestically and abroad.

Article Two of the United States Constitution grants power of foreign policy to the President of the United States, including powers to command the military, negotiate treaties, and appoint ambassadors. The Department of State carries out the president's diplomatic policy while the Department of Defense carries out the president's military policy. The Central Intelligence Agency is an independent agency responsible for gathering intelligence on foreign activity. Some checks and balances are applied to the president's powers of foreign policy. Treaties negotiated by the president require ratification by the Senate to take force as United States law. The president's ambassadorial nominations also require Senate approval before taking office. Military actions must first be approved by both chambers of Congress.

The Constitution grants Congress the power to approve the president's picks for ambassadors and the power to declare war. The president is commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. He appoints a secretary of state and ambassadors with the advice and consent of the Senate. The secretary acts similarly to a foreign minister, the primary conductor of state-to-state diplomacy.

 Kathy Hochul

### Alliances and partnerships

The Department of Defense considers cooperation with American allies and partners to be "critical" to achieving American defense objectives. The department makes a distinction between alliances, which are formal military agreements between countries through a treaty, and strategic partnerships, which are military cooperation agreements that aren't bound by specific terms. The United States military works in cooperation with many national governments, and the United States has approximately 750 military bases in at least 80 different countries. In addition to military agreements, the United States is a member of multiple international disarmament organizations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The United States is a founding member of NATO, an alliance of 29 North American and European nations formed to defend Western Europe against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Under the NATO charter, the United States legally recognizes any attack on a NATO member as an attack on all NATO members. The United States is also a founding member of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, an alliance of 19 North and South American nations. The United States is one of the three members of ANZUS, along with Australia and New Zealand, and it also has military alliances with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. Under the Compact of Free Association, the United States is responsible for the defense of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau. The United States has also designated several countries as major non-NATO allies. These are countries that are not members of NATO but are granted certain privileges in regard to defense trade and security cooperation, including eligibility for certain trade deals and research collaboration. The president is empowered to designate additional foreign countries as major non-NATO allies.