Foreign policy decisions are often thought of as collective events, conceptualized more in terms of sociology, historical patterns, structures, institutions, and culture before the individual psychological variables are considered. Situational and circumstantial variables are considered tantamount to psychological traits, cognitive, emotional, or behavioral cues. Structural perspectives like realism, neoliberalism, and idealism had become more important than focusing on the actual actors making decisions, just as the behaviors of corporations cloud

Foreign Policy Nixon's Detente Description Detente was a cooling down, or thaw, among America, Russia and China's arms' race (Detente). The United States and Russia could either slow their weapons production or continue the arms race, which, people feared could end in a devastating war (Detente, CNN). Nixon and Henry Kissinger worked secretly on Detente at summit meetings in Beijing and Moscow. President Gerald Ford signed on to Detente in Helsinki in 1975.

He suggests that other reasons were secondary and complementary to economic goals. First and foremost, Americans were interested in enriching themselves and the policy of the government reflected this goal. Healy agrees that there were economic concerns but he argues that there was multiplicity of goals. He specifically emphasizes that Americans were concerned about German threat to American interests in the region. He also notes that Americans viewed Central Americans

" that one administration official observed, "I can assure you a young generation of terrorists is being created" (Zaharna 2003). At present, "The current [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict is mortgaging the future of both nations. A new generation of Palestinians is coming of age. More than 50% of the population of the West Bank and Gaza is under the age of 15," which means that the U.S. must act now before a new

S. held canal back to Panama, and, importantly, the Iran hostage crisis that erupted during the later years of his presidency. The crisis highlighted Carter's weaknesses as a negotiator and military leader as neither his diplomatic nor military attempts to release the hostages succeeded, and they were released a few moments after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president. Despite being welcomed on such a positive foreign policy note, Reagan had

Foreign policy regarding Israel & Palestine The entire issue of Israel and Palestine is complicated by the position that the state of Israel is Jewish, to whom the Western countries have a guilt complex due to the actions of Hitler, and the fact that Palestine is Islamic and Islamic countries control most of the available petroleum of the world. In looking at foreign policy, the main element of relationship between two countries