Civics_Ch11_web-call

=**You make the call**= Below are various situations that need the president to make a decision. You're the Secretary of State, which means you are the president's chief foreign policy advisor. President Hill has decided that he completely trusts your judgement and is relying on you to make the best decision for the nation. You'll be posed with a foreign policy issue and you can read arguments from both sides. You'll need to decide which side you agree with and why. Remember, President Hill is depending on you! Label this section "you make the call" and answer the necessary questions.

(a) On one hand, it's worth buying the large amount of land even though you're not allowed to explore the land before buying it because expanding the size of the nation will provide more opportunities in terms of business and exploring the possibility of new resources therefore it's worth making the deal. (b) On the other hand, that is a lot of money for land that could turn out to be worthless therefore it's not worth making the deal.
 * (1)** You have the opportunity to buy land from a foreign nation. The difficulty about the opportunity is that you have to pay $15 million and you're not sure if it's worth it. The president has the authority to make a treaty but needs the Senate to approve. The president likes the idea of increasing the size of the nation, but isn't sure if the price is worth it because no one knows what is in this land. Advice has been given on both sides of the issue by various senators (you'll need Senate approval on this treaty).
 * You make the call:** You're the Secretary of State...what's your advice? Why?

(a) One option is to go to war anyways since freedom of the seas is being violated. You may therefore get sympathy from other nations since all nations would want freedom of the seas. (b) The risk is too great. The nation violating our trade ships is much more powerful than us. We'll stop trading and any ship that wants to travel on the high seas will do so at their own risk. We'll try to negotiate a settlement with this nation more powerful than us.
 * (2)** A nation more powerful than ours is stopping our ships in the ocean and taking some of the goods off of the ship and selling the goods in their own nation for profit. In addition, they're taking our sailors and forcing them to serve in their navy. The dilemma is that this nation is much more powerful than us and so going to war won't be easy and losing could mean getting taken over, since we're up against the most powerful nation on earth.
 * You make the call:** You're the Secretary of State...what's your advice? Why?

(a) Do you suggest that these other nations oppose the expansion of this dictator even if it means war knowing that war would further put nations in more financial problems. (b) Do you suggest that the other nations make a deal with the dictator that if he can expand his border to a nation to his south, but has to promise not to take any more land.
 * (3)** A harsh dictator has taken power in Europe. This dictator has said that his goal is world domination and will "eliminate" any who oppose his rule. He has said this but other nations around the world who could stop him are struggling with high unemployment and a major depression in their own nations. This dictator has said he wants to expand his border into another nations. There are 2 decisions that need to be made. First, other European nations are asking you for your advice. Here's the dilemma:
 * You make the call:** You're the Secretary of State...what's your advice? Why?

(a) On the one hand, this dictator is oppressive and ruthless and does not allow basic human rights in his nation. Therefore, you should get involved and remove him from power before he does more damage. (b) On the other hand, we should let Europe handle its own problems and since it doesn't affect us, we should not stick our noses in so to speak.
 * (4)** The same situation described in #3 requires you to decide whether or not to get involved. You know what this dictator has in mind in terms of goals, but it is in Europe, far from your nation. Should you get involved or not?
 * You make the call:** You're the Secretary of State...what's your advice? Why?

(a) Counterattack and go to war to bring the enemy to justice. (b) Negotiate a peace agreement with those who attacked us since wars are destructive and very expensive.
 * (5)** Here's a quick one but serious one. We've been attacked. What do we do?
 * You make the call:** You're the Secretary of State...what's your advice? Why?

(a) We could attack the small nation 90 miles away to remove the missiles and overthrow the leader who allowed the missiles to come in and look for talks with our rival to avoid an all out nuclear war. (b) We could launch a much larger attack against our rival...it's time to go to war with them since they're an obvious threat. (c) We could set up a blockade around the smaller nation 90 miles away to keep any more missiles from coming in and negotiate an agreement with our rival to get the missiles out.
 * (6)** A rival nation is friends with a small nation that is 90 miles away from our border. Our rival nation has been putting missiles (offensive missiles that can be used to attack) into this nation 90 miles away. Obviously, that is a major threat to our national security and needs to be dealt with immediately. One major issue is that both us and our rival have nuclear weapons. Nuclear war would cause a lot of destruction and deaths.
 * You make the call:** You're the Secretary of State...what's your advice? Why?

(a) It's a good idea because then our nation could do better business in our neighbor nations because they won't put on taxes to raise the price on our goods. (b) It's a bad idea because goods made in our own nation may not sell as good as other nations; also, businesses in our nation may relocate to one of our neighbor nations since they wouldn't have to pay as high of taxes as they pay in our nation and can ship goods in our nation for free.
 * (7)** The nation to our north and the nation to our south wants to negotiate a treaty to allow free trade across the borders of all three nations. Free trade means no tariffs on goods coming into the nation. What nations usually do is put a tariff or tax on imports, or goods that come into a nation, in order to raise the price of foreign goods to promote business in their own nation. So, is the treaty a good or bad idea?
 * You make the call:** You're the Secretary of State...what's your advice? Why?

(8) Some of your friends want to form a defensive alliance. This would mean that an attack against one member of the alliance would mean an attack against all. Is this a good or bad idea?
 * You make the call:** You're the Secretary of State...what's your advice? Why?

Well, let's see how your advice stacked up against decisions in history since these are examples of historical issues that needed our government to act. Click here to see how you did

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