Innledning
The United States of America is without doubt among the world’s most influential and powerful nations.

However, the world’s opinion of the country may be claimed to have changed during the last few decades.

Some argue that this change of opinion has been caused by the US’ post-war history of involvement, mainly the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Up until the Second World War, the USA chose a policy of isolationism and non-involvement. However, as the USA emerged from World War II being one out of two superpowers, isolationism was no longer an option.

The strengthened position of the country, caused them to be forced to involve themselves in the world.

Their role as a superpower, may be explained using a few simple keywords: hard power - such as military, and soft power: culture, as well as economy and politics.

Maybe the most important of these keywords, is their political power. This is because the USA greatly feared The Soviet Union’s communism, and they wished to avoid it from spreading to other countries.

Utdrag
The invasion of Iraq itself, as well as the consequences of their invasion, has also caused the US to grow rather unpopular.

The world protested when they first started planning the attacks, and refused to support the Americans in their search for WMD.

When they did not succeed in finding any weapons of mass destruction, nor to find a connection between Hussein and Taliban, their sympathy of the world dropped further.

The consequences seen in years following the invasion, have further contributed to cause the US’ international position to become weakened.

Our textbook, Access to English, states the following: “Over the following years, terrorist attacks from Iraqi nationalists and Islamic fundamentalists increased as Iraq sank into chaos, making it extremely difficuly to form a peaceful, democratic government. (…) world watches in dismay as bloodshed became increasingly common on the streets of Baghdad.”

This shows us that the invasion of Iraq has had enormous consequences. For example, the chaos in Iraq may be claimed to be linked to the recent Islamic terror-attacks in London and other big cities.

Based on the horrific consequences of these two invasions, one may understand that the world’s view of the USA most definitely has changed. Nevertheless, the USA still plays an important role in the world today.