Foreign policy is a country’s strategy for managing its interactions with the world. States typically seek to secure their national interests in a variety of ways, from forming military alliances to developing humanitarian programs and using soft power to combat threats.
A large part of foreign policy concerns dealing with nonstate actors – or terrorist organizations that are not legally recognized as nations – that seek to destabilize or destroy the international order and harm citizens around the globe. Terrorist attacks in the United States and elsewhere have added a new dimension to foreign policy, as nations must now consider retaliation against a broad range of adversaries, from Russian aggression in Ukraine to Iranian nuclear ambitions to China’s economic challenge to Taiwan and other countries in the South China Sea.
Most Americans agree that it’s important to ensure America maintains access to global markets and resources. These include natural resources, such as oil and minerals, and economic ones like a robust international marketplace for American business to sell its goods and services and to invest in the development of countries that are important for American security and economic prosperity. Americans also care about the ability to enjoy products – such as Swiss chocolate and Australian wine – that are produced abroad by friends of the US and that benefit from American foreign policy.