After he was elected as the 42nd US president in 1992, Bill Clinton's basic foreign policy was mainly intended to focus on domestic policy and did not intend to deviate much from existing foreign policy, except where it could improve the American economy. For example, he hoped to enlarge the number of free market democracies in the world, sometimes referred to as the 'policy of enlargement,' and advocated for open trade, including the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO). But it seemed like, more often than not, Bill Clinton kept finding himself and the nation mixed up in military actions around the world.
The notion of expanding the community of free-market democracies emerged as the central tenet of the Clinton administration’s foreign policy during its first time.
This policy was largely successful during President Clinton administration. It was thus followed up with globalization policy in his second tenure.
President Clinton's tenure coincided with a historic convergence of technological and political trends (the Internet, democratization, open markets, and porous borders) that facilitated an unprecedented level of global integration. As he was not contented to let the United States be left behind by the currents and tides of globalization, Clinton sought to accelerate and make good use of these forces and mitigate their volatility.
As open markets the world over accelerated not only cross-border investments but also cross-border crime, Clinton pushed for various initiatives to combat international money laundering because it brings about corruption and market instability.
A good example of the foreign policy intervention is between China and the United States and China, like two bickering Siamese twins, they often find their foeign relations and interests more or less the same: expanding trade and investment, maintaining peace on the Korean peninsula, fighting international narcotics traffickers, protecting the environment, and limiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Since President Nixon’s historic opening, every successive administration has learned that engaging Beijing in international polictics peacefully offers more opportunities for changing the regime’s behavior than pursuing containment and isolation. During the Clinton era, this approach has yielded definite benefits: China has halted nuclear testing, promised to phase out its nuclear cooperation with Iran, made a concerted effort to enforce intellectual property rights, and reduced trade barriers to U.S. products.
Also, cries of appeasement rang out when the United States negotiated an Agreed Framework with North Korea in 1994, under which North Korea promised to discontinue its nuclear weapons program in exchange for fuel and less-weapons-capable light-water nuclear reactors provided by South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Most critics of the administration called the arrangement a form of bribery.However, since the the Agreed Framework worked, the pundits were less given the chance. The nuclear weapons program remains frozen, and renewed and invigorated contacts between the two Koreas have raised hopes that limited engagement might yield benefits beyond the arena of arms control.
Also, a good example of President Clinton's role in global conflict is the one that happened in the Middle East.Under President Clinton, the U.S. became the main enforcer for United Nations directives against Iraq, including economic sanctions, military no-fly zones, and weapons inspection teams. But Saddam Hussein persistently interfered and obstructed these goals, resulting in a series of U.S.-led missile strikes in retaliation. The retaliation was tagged Operation Desert Fox. Operation Desert Fox was a four-day bombing raid, targeting existing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and the factories used to make them thus bringing Iran to come down to the negotiation table.
