Diplomacy's Impact on Foreign Policy

Big Stick Diplomacy – The Dollar Diplomacy – The Moral Diplomacy

Big stick diplomacy, dollar diplomacy, and moral diplomacy by Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson respectively have had profound impacts on foreign policy, especially during the beginning of the 21st century.

The Big Stick Diplomacy is by President Theodore Roosevelt which was based on the theory that the United States could use force to maintain stability in Latin America.

It was in the Roosevelt Corollary that the U.S. use “international police power” in Latin America. The Big Stick Diplomacy is important because it negotiated peacefully with other countries while at the same time making other countries yield by “threatening” them with the Big Stick Diplomacy. This would reassure Americans that overseas territories would belong to the United States and it got other countries to respect the United States and back off.

The Dollar Diplomacy was by President William H. Taft which was based on the theory that when countries near the Panama canal were in debt to the British, American bankers would buy the debt.

This supported the idea to maintain a good economy for the United States at the Panama Canal. Dollar Diplomacy was important because it helped maintain a positive economy. Since the United States owned the Panama Canal, when other countries around it were not doing so well financially the trade through the canal would not do so well and bring prices down. So if Americans paid off their debt then the economy would be stronger and the trading at the Panama Canal would be more prosperous and the United States will earn more money through their trading port.

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The Moral Diplomacy was by President Woodrow Wilson which was based on the theory that foreign policy should reflect American values. This brought up concerns more about human values than property rights. Moral Diplomacy was important because during the time there was a lot of Imperialism in other countries so Wilson introduced democracy to the other countries through the form of his Moral Diplomacy. Wilson’s idea was meant to use economic pressure to influence and control the other nations. This gained allies with the U.S. because they shared common values which then helped with the economic interests that the United States had with other countries.

Compare and Contrast

Roosevelt lead the foreign policy in some ways aggressively as he tries to show the US power, his policy of the Big Stick was a clear example of the convenience of increasing the equipment of force as the best way to change other countries’ perspectives in trying to challenge the US. Thus, the foreign policy of Roosevelt was also a continuity of the Monroe Doctrine, and “the big stick” was used against European countries such as Germany and England in the attempt of establishing a blockade on Venezuela because of debt problems. This issue also occurs in the

Dominican Republic, where the US acts in the defense of the Monroe Doctrine. On the other hand, the dollar diplomacy driven by William Taf also obeys the trend of expansion of the US but from a different perspective than the one from the Big Stick. Taft’s mechanism of expansion was the economy, and so, he uses all the economic power of the country to buy alliances. The moral diplomacy adopted by Woodrow Wilson was a very different perspective compared to the other diplomacies. This president didn’t see positively the acts of imperialism and believed in freedom and democracy in an abroad way. That fact, cause a change in US foreign policy, and there fourteen points of Wilson were highly criticized, but at the same time were recognized by many countries around the world, and therefore a supranational institution was though and then created, the League of Nations, based on the principles of Wilson including the perspective of self-determination, that marked a real change in US behavior. Although, some believe that Wilson’s points relay a different kind of influence from the US, basically the US at that time began to exercise an ideological influence because many underdeveloped countries will support the US with the idea of freedom and self-determination, and will create competition against those countries that still have colonies such as some European countries.