Describe the role of the United States in international organizations.

At the end of the twentieth century, the United States suddenly found itself as the only remaining superpower in the world. With the demise of the Soviet Union and the relative weakness of the individual nations that emerged from its collapse, there is no nation in the world that can match the United States’ military power. But does might always make right? While it is certainly in a nation’s best interests to be strong rather than weak, the people and the leaders of the United States must now decide how to use the nation’s unrivaled military power in an increasingly dangerous world.

As the United States establishes a new role for itself in the twenty-first century, there are familiar calls from a few American citizens and politicians to be “isolationist,” that is, to “go our own way, to decide what is in our nation’s best interests, and to pursue those interests using whatever resources we have, including military resources when necessary.” However, the forces of globalization are at least equally powerful. Technology has made instantaneous communication and rapid international travel realities. In the world economy, the importance of national borders is much less meaningful than it once was. For example, a car with a Japanese manufacturer’s label is likely to have parts made in the United States assembled in Mexico. In some instances, “foreign” cars are even officially considered “American” cars for trade purposes. From economic, political, and cultural points of view, it is increasingly nonsensical to speak of countries as independent, free to do what they please without considering the impact of their actions on other nations or the actions of other nations on them.

The primary way nations participate with each other in the highly complex, interdependent sphere of global politics is through international organizations such as the United Nations (the chief international political body), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (an American and European military alliance), the Organization of American States (a Western Hemisphere political body) and the World Trade Organization (a global trade policy body). In these and dozens of other cases, the United States must first decide whether or not to affiliate with these organizations. If it chooses to be a member nation of a particular international organization, it must then decide how fully to participate with other nations in its deliberations, meetings, and other activities. The United States must also decide what kinds of resources (and how much of them) to contribute to the organization’s programs and projects. Finally, the United States must decide to what extent it will respect and adhere to policies or guidelines established by these organizations. In practice, the United States does, in fact, affiliate with and participate in dozens of international organizations. However, it maintains its right and freedom to refuse to participate or contribute at any time and to reject any of the decisions made by these organizations.