Major Foreign Policy Themes (cont) The Cold War -the ideological, political and economic impasse that existed between the U.S. and the Soviet Union following the end of their World War II alliance o during the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy was dominated by containment, the idea limiting Communist power to its(then) existing countries o the Cuban Missile crisis was the closest the superpowers came to direct confrontation o detente between the U.S. and the soviet union occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s o during the 1980s the Reagan administration lobbied for the development of the Strategic Defense Initiative(SDI orStar Wars), and also negotiated significant arms control treaties o the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the developments in Eastern Europe made negotiating arms control more difficult, as nuclear weapons are now held by a number of sovereign nations rather than oneMajor Foreign Policy Themes (cont.) The Cold War – the ideological, political and economic impasse that existed between the U.S. and the Soviet Union following the end of their World War II alliance o during the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy was dominated by containment, the idea limiting Communist power to its (then) existing countries o the Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the superpowers came to direct confrontation o détente between the U.S. and the Soviet Union occurred in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s o during the 1980’s the Reagan administration lobbied for the development of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI or “Star Wars), and also negotiated significant arms control treaties o the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the developments in Eastern Europe made negotiating arms control more difficult, as nuclear weapons are now held by a number of sovereign nations, rather than one