Travel abroad, listen to foreign correspondents, or just hang out online and you’ll soon discover that the US isn’t winning any international popularity contests.
This isn’t anything new. The Ugly American syndrome had been around long before the 1958 political novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer. Arrogance and failure to understand the world beyond our borders is an enduring characteristic of American culture.
As I watched the vice presidential debate last night and the focus group wrap ups afterwards , I worried that the upcoming election may be decided by gut reactions to sound bites, or “Ugly Americans,” rather than by well-informed citizens with a sound understanding of American Foreign Policy.
Well, I don’t want to be an Ugly American, and I hope you don’t want to be one either.
Like you, I don’t have much time for a refresher course on American foreign policy. Here are a few links, bipartisan of course, to give you just enough information to weigh the candidates in the upcoming election:
1. Read Learn the Basics of U.S. Foreign Policy History, Creation, and Implementation by Keith Porter on the About.com Guide to Foreign Policy.
2. Learn the Foreign Policy Vocabulary: National Interest, National Security, International Relations, and Globalization. Find more Foreign Policy Vocabulary on: Hot Chalks Foreign Policy Lesson Plan, or the Foreign Policy Digest Glossary.
3. Find out what foreign policy advice five former Secretaries of State would give the next President of the United States in the CNN forum presentation, “The Next President: A World of Challenges.” Watch the entire show on You Tube or read the transcript.
When you’re done, you may be at the same point as former Secretary of State General Colin Powell. He hasn’t decided yet who he will vote for as he gathers information from the debates and developing platform on the issues.
Frankly, that’s all I’m hoping for our country. This year, whatever your beliefs, let every American cast a well-informed vote.
Oh, and one more thing, in some states, the deadline to register is tomorrow. Don’t miss your chance to Rock the Vote! (Click for deadlines and registration information.)
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Thanks Sandra. I don’t want to be an ugly American either. I am staunchly an American, but over the past 15 months of blogging and chatting with people all over the globe, we Americans need to seriously work on foreign relations.
Our international behavior as a nation deserves a time-out. We are the bratty preschoolers in the world and we need to learn how to get along and play well with others. Our leaders need to work on this consistently and continuously, no matter who may be elected in this cycle.
Thanks for the post and great info links,
Sherri
Can you send this list to Sarah Palin?
Those are excellent links and I have bookmarked all them with Instapaper to review later.
Unfortunatately there is so much biased, uninformative, and confusing junk out there based on emotion. As a home school mom you probably know well that certain people learn in different ways. I believe if we can present information in a simple logical fashion all of us would benefit.
PunditMom,
I’m pretty sure since Sarah Palin isn’t allowed to be interviewed, she probably isn’t allowed to read anything they don’t want her to as well.
I think there is more to McCain’s pick of Palin than meets the eye. I think she’s Dick Cheney, Jr. in a dress and on purpose. Please check out my blog post: McCain-Palin: a Halliburton II Administration at http://beingthechangeiwishtosee.com/106/mccain-palin-halliburton-2/
Sherri