Understanding the Instruments of US Power

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The instruments of power are resources the United States use to secure national security and drive the United States’ agenda. The instruments include diplomatic, information, military, and economics, but not in any particular order. These instruments of power can be used in different ways including all at once, or one at a time. Each of the instruments works in a very different ways although they all serve the U.S. ultimate goal of security. Diplomacy includes ambassadors, treaties, and general foreign policy. Information is used as military intelligence, public speaking forums, and the media. The military is used as an instrument by a show of force, military operations, and the size of force. Economic powers are demonstrated by embargoes, …show more content…

Some countries do not flinch when economic powers are used against them, we could see this from an already very poor country. One tool that is brought into some of these specific powers is the weapon of mass destruction or WMD. The WMD can be utilized as a nuclear weapon, biological weapon, radiological weapon, or chemical weapon. These tools can be dispersed within the powers to compel compliance at different levels.

In diplomatic powers the WMD can be used as a way to show diplomacy with a prior adversary, an example of this is post war disarmament of some of the U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons (Sarkesian, Williams, Cimbala, 2013). This reduction in weapons by both sides showed each other they were willing to compromise, this also sent more calm across different parts of the world.

The information that was spread about these weapons also played a big part in the Cold War. Both sides were engaged in an intelligence race in attempts to learn more about the others WMD capabilities. The intelligence community saw a large expansion during this time and still commands a large portion of the instrumental powers. The more intelligence that is obtained the more the United States can analyze potential threats. This can also be used as a deterrent to future attacks and be rolled into diplomacy and

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