Assess the Importance of the International Policies of the Last Three Presidents

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In the United States the president’s international policies have been vitally important in determining how successful their presidency has been. The duration of their international policies, along with its amount of support from both the public and congress have a great impact on the president, as well as their domestic policies as they can affect the length of their term and the popularity of the presidency. This can be seen through the last three US presidents: Bill Clinton (1993-2001), George W Bush (2001-2009), and Barack Obama (2009-now). After the fall of the Soviet Union and at the end of the cold war, President Clinton came into office. Just before Clinton’s administration, President Bush had sent troops to Somalia in order to safe guard relief supplies in a time of famine and civil war. However, the American troops faced fire from armed clans resulting in the death of 19 soldiers and thus, the mission quickly lost support from US citizens. Despite the loss of support, Clinton sent in more soldiers and only after demands for withdrawal grew louder, did he eventually order troops out of Somalia, where things got worse. A similar incident occurred only a few months later in 1994 when a genocide conflict erupted in Rwanda in which nearly 1 million Rwandans died. After 3 months, Clinton finally sent in aid and troops, yet faced a mass amount of criticisms for their non-response to the genocide, as his actions were deemed ‘too little, too late’. These two international policy failures were important as it made Clinton appear to be indecisive in international issues, making him a dovish President and as a result of this, the president’s disapproval ratings raised to 49% from 38% at the beginning of the year, highlighting his inexperience and weakness as a President. On the other hand, Clinton did have some international policy successes, most notably through

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