Abstract

Although foreign policy is often regarded as a political endeavor, economics always has been a driving factor in shaping it. Leaders of empires, kingdoms, and countries have a long tradition of seeking to expand trade and investment opportunities on behalf of their constituents. During the last decades of the twentieth-century, trade, finance, and economics assumed even greater importance in the foreign policies of the United States and virtually every other country. Increasingly more complex cross-border linkages, brought on by advancements in technology, the end of the Cold War, and strong economic growth in strategic countries, made the term “globalization” commonplace in corporate board rooms, foreign ministries, and even households.