US foreign policy

The United States of America have vast economical, political and military influence on a global scale, which makes the concepts and details of their foreign policies a subject of great interest and discussion around the world.

Purposes recurringly mentioned and emphasized by U.S. officials are:

• Promotion of peace, freedom (most notably of speech and enterprise) and democracy in all regions of the world
• Furthering free trade, unencumbered by tariffs, interdictions and other economic barriers, and furthering capitalism in order to foster economic growth and thus improve living conditions everywhere
• Bringing developmental[?] and humanitarian aid[?] to foreign peoples in need

Critics of US foreign policy tend to respond that these goals commonly regarded as noble were often overstated and point out contradictions between foreign policy rhetoric and actions:

• The mention of peace as opposed to the long list of US military involvements
• The mention of freedom and democracy as opposed to the many former and current dictatorships that receive(d) US support[?]
• The mention of free trade as opposed to US import tariffs (to protect local industries from global competition) on foreign goods like wood (mostly from Canada) and steel.
• The mention of US generosity as opposed to the low spendings on foreign developmental aid (measured as percentage of GDP)

So-called globalization critics, like the Attac[?] movement, also oppose the notion, most notably spread by US politicians, and international economic organizations closely related to the USA, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, that selling state industries to private investors (privatization) would neccessarily improve quality and lower prices of the goods produced by these industries, arguing that certain industries must remain publicly-owned to avoid abuse of private monopolies, and that certain countries had already seen an erosion in price-to-value ratio as the result of privatizations. It is also argued that the sale of public property often includes potentially massive corruption, e.g. underpriced "sell-out" of public assets in return of personal or political favors.

[Please add a (link to a) timeline of US foreign policies here, if you have the time and knowledge.]