USG.4.5

=Examine the different forces that influence U.S. foreign policy, including business and labor organizations, interest groups, public opinion, and ethnic and religious organizations.=

//**Focus Question: What groups influence American foreign policy?**//

 * Brief Summary of U.S. Foreign Policy**

The **foreign policy of the United States** is the policy for which the United States interacts with foreign nations and sets standards of interaction for its organizations, corporations and individual citizens.
 * The global reach of the United States is backed by a $14 trillion economy,[|[1]] approximately [|a quarter of global GDP], and a defense budget of $711 billion, which accounts for approximately [|43% of global military spending].
 * The [|U.S. Secretary of State] is the [|foreign minister] and is the official charged with state-to-state diplomacy, although the [|president] has ultimate authority over [|foreign policy] ; that policy includes defining the [|national interest], as well as the strategies chosen to both safeguard that and achieve its policy goals.
 * The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States, as mentioned in the Foreign Policy Agenda of the [|U.S. Department of State], are "to create a more secure, democratic, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community."[|[2]]
 * In addition, the [|United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs] states as some of its jurisdictional goals: "export controls, including nonproliferation of nuclear technology and nuclear hardware; measures to foster commercial intercourse with foreign nations and to safeguard [|American business] abroad; International commodity agreements; international education; and protection of American citizens abroad and [|expatriation] ."[|[3]]
 * U.S. foreign policy and [|foreign aid] have been the subject of much debate, praise and criticism both domestically and abroad.[|[4]]

Click here for //Who Influences U. S. Foreign [|Policy]//, an article about from the American Political Science Review (2005),

Video interview of Professor Peter Dale Scott about a possible new mindset on U.S. foreign [|policy]

Click here for a [|Global Closet Calculator], an interactive game from National Geographic that introduces students to the concepts of interdependence and globalization.