33 articles
2025 Donald Trump Gaza Strip takeover proposal
Trump's February 4, 2025 proposal for the US to 'take over' and rebuild Gaza as a 'Riviera' while resettling its 2 million Palestinians in Egypt and Jordan; rejected by Arab states, criticized as a war crime, later superseded by the 20-point plan.
American decline
American decline is the recurring claim that US global preeminence is fading. Key markers: world GDP share steady near 25% since 1970, unmatched military spending, dollar dominance, and cyclical declinism debates from Sputnik to Paul Kennedy to the present.
American expansionism under Donald Trump
American expansionism under Donald Trump: the second-term agenda targeting Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal, and Gaza, culminating in the 2026 Greenland crisis, NATO condemnation, and a US-Denmark-Greenland security agreement.
Annexation of Santo Domingo
The annexation of Santo Domingo was an unsuccessful effort by President Ulysses S. Grant's administration, from 1869 to 1871, to annex the Dominican Republic to the United States by treaty.
Axis of evil
Axis of evil: phrase from George W. Bush's January 29, 2002 State of the Union address labeling Iran, Iraq, and North Korea; coined by speechwriter David Frum, evoking the WWII Axis and Reagan's evil empire.
Bush Doctrine
The Bush Doctrine is the George W. Bush administration's post-9/11 foreign policy framework, formalized in the September 2002 National Security Strategy, emphasizing preemptive war, unilateral action, and democracy promotion, first tested in the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Dean Acheson
Dean Gooderham Acheson (1893-1971), 51st U.S. Secretary of State under Truman, 1949-1953; architect of NATO, Truman Doctrine-era policy, and the 1951 Japan treaties; later Pulitzer-winning memoirist.
Dollar diplomacy
Dollar diplomacy: early 20th-century US foreign policy under Taft and Knox (1909–1913), substituting "dollars for bullets" via private bank loans and fiscal supervision in the Caribbean, Central America, and China, largely a failure.
Donroe Doctrine
Donroe Doctrine: portmanteau of Donald and Monroe for the Trump Corollary to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, asserting U.S. hemispheric preeminence via the 2025 NSS, 2026 NDS, Maduro's capture, and the Shield of the Americas.
Foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration
Reagan administration foreign policy (1981–1989), also called the Reagan Doctrine: anti-détente Cold War strategy with a 35% defense buildup, SDI, aid to Contras and Afghan mujahideen, and the 1987 INF Treaty with Gorbachev.
Foreign policy of the second Trump administration
Foreign policy of the second Trump administration: Donald Trump's America First external policy since January 20, 2025, marked by record executive orders, WHO and Paris withdrawals, the 2025 National Security Strategy's Trump Corollary, NATO 5 percent spending demands, Gaza diplomacy, Caribbean military strikes, and the 2026 Russia sanctions waiver and diesel deal.
Foreign policy of the United States
Foreign policy of the United States: how the U.S. conducts relations with other nations. Also called American diplomacy. President sets policy, State Department executes; tools include alliances, aid, sanctions (9,400+ designations by 2021).
Good Neighbor policy
The Good Neighbor policy was Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 Latin America policy of non-intervention, cooperation, and trade, replacing the Roosevelt Corollary era; formalized at Montevideo 1933, ended by the 1954 Guatemala coup.
Gulf of Mexico naming controversy
The Gulf of Mexico naming controversy began when President Trump signed Executive Order 14172 in 2025, directing federal agencies to call it the Gulf of America.
Henry L. Stimson
Henry L. Stimson (1867–1950), American statesman and lawyer, served in four presidential cabinets as Secretary of War under Taft, Roosevelt, and Truman and Secretary of State under Hoover; Stimson Doctrine namesake and Manhattan Project overseer.
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles (1888–1959), 52nd U.S. Secretary of State under Eisenhower (1953–1959), brother of CIA Director Allen Dulles; architect of SEATO, CENTO, massive retaliation, brinksmanship, and the Eisenhower Doctrine.
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine, declared by President James Monroe on December 2, 1823, opposed European colonization and intervention in the Americas; later corollaries (Roosevelt, Trump) turned it into a justification for U.S. intervention in Latin America.
Pax Silica
Pax Silica is a US State Department-led economic security initiative launched December 2025 to secure AI supply chains, from critical minerals and energy to chips, data centers, and models, among allied partner countries; distinct from the unrelated private Pax Silica Network directory.
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is a U.S. federal volunteer agency created by Kennedy's Executive Order 10924 on March 1, 1961 and authorized by the Peace Corps Act of September 22, 1961; over 240,000 Americans have served abroad in six sectors, distinct from AmeriCorps domestic service.
Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine was the Reagan administration's 1980s policy of openly aiding anti-communist insurgencies, named after Reagan's February 1985 State of the Union pledge that support for freedom fighters is self-defense, applied in Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Angola, and Cambodia.
Roosevelt Corollary
The Roosevelt Corollary, announced by Theodore Roosevelt on December 6, 1904, expanded the Monroe Doctrine by claiming U.S. 'international police power' over chronically unstable Latin American states, leading to the Dominican customs receivership and occupations of Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic before its 1934 abandonment.
Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List
The SDN List, or Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, is OFAC's principal U.S. sanctions list; listed parties' U.S.-jurisdiction property is blocked and U.S. persons may not deal with them, including via the 50 Percent Rule.
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was the American policy announced by President Harry S. Truman in 1947 to aid nations threatened by authoritarian forces, starting with $400 million for Greece and Turkey.
Trump Gold Card
Trump Gold Card: U.S. immigrant visa program under Executive Order 14351 (September 19, 2025) granting expedited residency for a $1 million gift ($2 million corporate), originally announced at $5 million as an EB-5 replacement; legally contested.
United States covert aid to UNITA
United States covert aid to UNITA was secret American assistance to Jonas Savimbi's guerrilla movement against Angola's MPLA government, begun in 1975 and expanded under Reagan from 1985.
United States Department of State
United States Department of State (State Department), U.S. foreign affairs agency established July 27, 1789, renamed September 15, 1789; led by the Secretary of State, the President's principal foreign policy adviser, with 64 secretaries since Jefferson.
United States foreign adversaries
United States foreign adversaries are states the US designates or assesses as strategic competitors, chiefly China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea (CRINK), assessed across military, cyber, gray zone, and data-security threats.
United States foreign policy in the Middle East
US foreign policy in the Middle East: diplomacy, aid, arms sales, and sanctions toward MENA. Goals include containing Iran, counterterrorism, energy security, and Israeli-Arab peace; $351 billion in aid since 1946, Carter Doctrine, 2025-26 Iran and Gaza diplomacy.
United States involvement in regime change
United States involvement in regime change: use of covert action, coups, and military intervention to replace foreign governments, from Iran 1953 and Guatemala 1954 to Iraq 1998 and Afghanistan, with measured declines in democracy and income in target states.
United States non-interventionism
United States non-interventionism: a foreign policy tradition, rooted in Washington's 1796 Farewell Address and the Monroe Doctrine, opposing military alliances and foreign wars; seen in the interwar Neutrality Acts and modern America First politics, distinct from isolationism.