Demise of the Soviet Union and United States As world's policeman

Question

With the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States was faced with the prospect of playing the role of the “world’s policeman.” What dynamics (i.e., global threats) have increasingly forced the United States to assume this role? What cl role did, and should, allies play in this effort? cr). co

Answer

AMERICAN MILITARY POWER

For decades, the United States of America has been on the forefront to enforce some kind of international standard with the threat of force from enemies and protect the weak from attacks. For the country to be in a position to play such an important role, it has been forced to invest heavily in the military. As of the world today, the U.S military power and capability is ridiculously significant making it one of the largest, best trained and best-equipped armies in the world. Statistics clearly show that the United States government spends the largest part of its budget on defense and military more than the total budget of the next eight world largest militaries in the globe today (Boot, 2014). This assignment will attempt to identify and explain the reasons behind America’s world police status today.

At the beginning of first and send world war, United States had vowed not to engage itself in issues pertaining Europe and the rest of the world and this isolation policy influenced her rice to power. However, isolation did not work and it took quite a long time and a lot of funding for the country to cross the Atlantic. Moreover, at the start of the 20th century, the country was still focused on American affairs and was interested in protecting the western hemisphere at all cost. However, when her interests were disrupted by the wars, America eventually got involved in the war to protect her people and interest. America involvement in the war gifted the allied side the victory and America emerged as a superpower.

Moreover, the fall of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, which was considered as a threat to the Western Europe meant that the United States was the remaining superpower in the world. Besides, after the fall of the USSR, most countries felt that they needed independence and the power was handed to NATO. However, NATO was unable to maintain order and safety for all countries, especially in the Middle East, where military leadership was rampant, and their intention to remain in power prompted them to buy military hardware which could only be purchased from the United States. Given her military power and status, the American military industry was able to supply guns and other military materials to other countries keeping her at the forefront of military sales as well as the control of the military hardware sales in the globe (Epstein, 2014). Through deciding who was to receive or purchase the hardware and those not allowed to own them, she began policing the world.

At the begging of the war, only a few American households owned a television. However, as the war progressed more people became glued to their televisions, and this influenced the turn of the war. The Vietnam War was branded as a television war owing to the impacts televised media had on how Americans experienced the conflict. As a result, 1968 marked the turning point of the war mainly because of the war fought on the television and the newspapers. One of the major effects of the media broadcast on the war was the development of anti-war movement at home after the My Lai massacre which increased media attention but forgot the United States soldiers in Vietnam (Epstein, 2014). Moreover, the lack of censorship in the news broadcasted by journalists who joined the soldiers in combat really demoralized the soldiers as well as led to a public outcry against the war. In addition, the intense negative coverage of the war influenced politicians, scholars and the general public who withdrew their support. The media negatively influenced the war.

In conclusion, it is correct to say that the United States is the only remaining superpower in the world today given its military size, training, and power. As a result, most of the developing and undeveloped countries, call on herd for help and guidance both economically, politically and military wise.