ShmoopTube

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:03

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by deescalation,

00:06

the movement to eliminate escalators.

00:09

Yeah. We're going for elevators instead.

00:11

These things. Yeah. All right.

00:13

All right, give this excerpt a read.

00:15

[ mumbles in rasping voice ]

00:18

[ raspy mumbling continues ] Well, Nancy.

00:21

[ mumbling ] Just say no.

00:25

Okay, and the question:

00:26

In between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the attacks of September 11th,

00:31

the United States' foreign policy could best be characterized as one that... what?

00:35

And here are your potential answers.

00:36

[ mumbling ]

00:42

All right, well, here we go.

00:43

When the Cold War ended, the U.S. breathed a huge sigh of relief,

00:47

but with the removal of the Soviet Union as a major power,

00:50

the geopolitical landscape encountered

00:52

some major remodeling.

00:54

Let's take a look at the answers and see which one best describes this

00:57

foreign policy face lift.

00:59

Hmm.

01:00

Was a major change in U.S. foreign policy between the collapse

01:04

of the Soviet Union and the attacks of September 11th that it

01:08

A - was strictly isolationist? Hmm.

01:11

Well, remember that first Iraq war?

01:13

President George H.W. Bush led a

01:16

coalition of nations against Saddam Hussein

01:18

after he invaded Kuwait. So sayonara, isolationism.

01:23

Could the shift in foreign policy have been that the U.S. B -

01:27

required an increase in military spending?

01:30

Well, after decades of military preparedness and the production

01:33

of nuclear weapon stockpiles,

01:35

the U.S. could finally decrease its military spending

01:38

given that the Soviet Union was, well, out of the picture.

01:41

So scud missile that. Reverse it. Yeah, goes away.

01:44

Was the shift in foreign policy that the U.S. D -

01:47

recognized the multipolar nature of the global landscape?

01:52

Well, following the collapse of the Soviet Union,

01:54

America suddenly became the world's only superpower belle of the ball.

01:58

So it was unipolar, not multipolar.

02:01

Heh. Talk about dancing by yourself.

02:03

Which means that between the collapse of the Soviet Union

02:07

and the attacks of September 11th, the U.S. C -

02:10

intervened when American interests were at risk.

02:13

Duh. Back to the first Iraq war.

02:15

Though the U.S.-led coalition was

02:17

fighting to protect the territorial integrity of Kuwait,

02:21

we were also coming to the aid of Saudi Arabia, a key regional ally

02:24

that felt threatened by Hussein's expansionist tactics.

02:27

So C is the right answer.

02:29

And you know what they call siblings forced to clean the house together?

02:32

A coalition of the unwilling.

02:34

[ children grunting ] We know that movie.

02:37

[ glass clattering ]

Full Transcript