Magruder's American Government: 6. The Executive Branch at Work, Sections 4–6

To put the point another way, a nation’s foreign policy includes everything that that nation’s government says and everything that it does in world affairs.

With the coming of independence, and then for more than 150 years, the American people were chiefly concerned with domestic affairs—with events at home.

Through that period, America’s foreign relations were very largely shaped by a policy of isolationism—a purposeful refusal to become generally involved in the affairs of the rest of the world.

In the same year, the United States gained the right to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.

Following World War II, the United States and most of the rest of a war-weary world looked to the principle of collective security to keep international peace and order. America hoped to forge a world community in which at least most nations would agree to act together against any nation that threatened the peace.

Basically, deterrence is the strategy of maintaining military might at so great a level that that very strength will deter—discourage, prevent—an attack on this country by any hostile power.

The cold war was a period of more than 40 years during which relations between the two superpowers were at least tense and, more often than not, distinctly hostile.

From mid-1947 through the 1980s, the United States followed the policy of containment. That policy was rooted in the belief that if communism could be kept within its existing boundaries, it would collapse under the weight of its own internal weaknesses.

As the United States withdrew from Vietnam, the Nixon administration embarked on a policy of détente. In this case, the policy of détente included a purposeful attempt to improve relations with the Soviet Union and, separately, with China.

Under international law, every nation has the right of legation—the right to send and receive diplomatic representatives.

An ambassador is the official representative of a sovereign state in the conduct of its foreign affairs.

As a major exception to that rule, ambassadors are regularly granted diplomatic immunity—they are not subject to the laws of the state to which they are accredited.

A passport is a legal document issued by a state that identifies a person as a citizen of that state.

A visa is a permit to enter another state and must be obtained from the country one wishes to enter.

Since World War II, the United States has constructed a large network of regional security alliances built on mutual defense treaties.

The Security Council bears the UN’s major responsibility for maintaining international peace.

Much of their work involves espionage—spying—and is shrouded in deepest secrecy.

Terrorism is the use of violence to intimidate a government or a society, usually for political or ideological reasons.