Learn about the various ways countries influence one another.

What Tools Do Foreign Policy-Makers Have at Their Disposal?

In this foreign policy video, learn how leaders further their countries’ interests with political, economic, and military tools such as diplomacy, trade, and intelligence.

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What Is Diplomacy?

In this free resource on diplomacy, understand how countries advocate for their national interests through foreign policy.

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What Are Economic Sanctions?

In this free resource on sanctions, learn how countries use punitive economic measures to advance their foreign policy priorities.

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What Is Economic Statecraft?

Learn why China lends billions of dollars aboard each year through its Belt and Road Initiative and the implications of that free resource for recipient countries.

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What Is Trade Policy?

In this free resource on trade policy, explore how countries leverage their economic power to advance their foreign policy interests.

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What Is Armed Force?

In this free resource on military action, learn how countries use violence, or armed force, to influence foreign policy.

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What Is Deterrence?

In this free resource, explore examples of deterrence from the Cold War to present day to learn how countries dissuade bad behavior with the threat of significant punishment.

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What Is Arms Control?

In this free resource on arms control agreements, learn how countries try to regulate the world’s most powerful weapons through foreign policy.

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What Is Nation-Building?

In this free resource on nation-building, learn why developing political, economic, security, and social institutions across borders is a complex business.

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What Is Peacekeeping?

In this free resource on the successes and failures of peacekeeping, learn about the UN missions tasked with transitioning countries out of war.

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What Is Intelligence?

From Cold War double agents to Chinese spy balloons, explore how lying and spying inform policymaking in this resource on intelligence.

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What Is Soft Power?

From Cold War propaganda to current day pop culture, learn how countries use soft power to influence others without coercion in this free resource.

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How Do Countries Select Their Foreign Policy Tools?

In this educational video on foreign policy, explore how U.S. relations with Japan have changed over the past century, from Pearl Harbor to a peaceful alliance.

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