Thesis Statement - Getting Back from the Point of No Return

By any accord, the first decade of the twenty-first century has been a turbulent one in international relations. This is especially true for the United States, not because of, but rather despite of the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Initially after the terrorist attacks 2001 the world stood in solidarity with the United States and offered their support, but since this support has begun to dry (further explain and cite). The United States engaged itself in two wars, stressing the US military, some say to the breaking point (further explain and cite). During these two wars, many of the United States' closest allies from the Cold War, including NATO, England and Japan, have slowly distanced themselves from the United States' foreign policy. The US dollar has weakened against all major currencies, and its foreign trade deficit has spiraled out of control, and tensions have begun to rise with many of its old rivals including Russia and China.

With each of these in mind, US foreign policy finds itself at a point of
the beginning of the twenty-first century has seen a major decline in the international influence and power of the United States. As of late, there has been a temptation to place blame for this loss, but this point is counter-productive. There will be dire consequences if the United States continues to loose its influence into the next decade, and placing blame will not improve this situation. But this danger masks a great opportunity. In this atmosphere, the world will be very sensitive to changes in American foreign policy. Thus small changes during this time period will have the opportunity to make their largest impact on the international scene because solving many of the problems will also also improve American relations with the other world governments.

There are many places where this opportunity could be used, but the much of this effort should be focused where it would do the most good. Bearing this in mind two things must be taken into account: where the United States could make the most improvement, and where the building of stronger international connections would not adversely effect America's relations with other older allies. The Russian Federation fits this profile perfectly. It is the only member of the G8 which the United States considers a military rival. In addition, unlike the tensions between China and Taiwan, there is no country that would directly find normalization between Russia and the United States threatening. Though there are many issues of contention between the United States and Russia, and each of these issues can be solved to the satisfaction and betterment of both the United States and Russia.