Current Events and U.S. DiplomacyJoseph D. WilliamsProfessor Tracy HermanPOL 300 International IssuesAugust 17, 2016The Reagan DoctrineThe definition of the term “doctrine” is “A statement of authorized government policy, especially in the concerns of “overseas and military strategy” (“Doctrine,” n.d.) The term presidential doctrine refers to an ideological platform that a president uses to spread a policy toward a country or region in order to achieve foreign policy objectives for the United States. Presidents like James Monroe, Harry S. Truman and Richard Nixon etc. have articulated their policies, but among these executive doctrines, Reagan's diplomatic doctrine, known to all as the foreign policy intent, is significant of Reagan was to eliminate the efforts of the Soviet Union to prolong its rule and from this moment on it was opted for the formulation of its doctrine to help the rebels who in various countries of the world who attempted to overthrow the Soviet regimes (Carpenter, 1986 ). Related to this point, it should be said that, unlike the previous Cold War “inclusion” doctrine, the Reagan doctrine called for “American moral and material support for insurgent actions seeking to oust Soviet-backed regimes in various nations of the Third World” (Carpenter, 1986). Furthermore, it must be said that the Reagan Doctrine arose as a result of the American administration's opposition to Soviet advances in Africa, Central America and Central Asia. “Just as Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and Chinese leader Mao strengthened armed revolutions against colonial or U.S.-aligned states, American power would now reassure and maintain rebels against communist states” (“The Reagan Doctrine,” and for some of the rebels who were making efforts, with the help of the United States, to banish the Soviet-backed regimes in their individual nations. The practical implementation of some of the policies of the doctrine has sparked confusion in the very political domain of the United States in theory practice Reagan allowed arms sales to Iran, and the profits from that trade were intended to provide monetary aid to the Contras – the anti-Sandinista rebels secretly trained by U.S. Special Forces (“The Reagan Doctrine,” n.d. Furthermore, since the Contras were both supported and developed tactically by the United States and were used against Soviet-backed regimes, the “exposé of the Iran-Contra affair in late 1986 prompted congressional scrutiny. The scandal severely weakened the president's influence” (“The Reagan Doctrine,” n.d.). Furthermore, exposure of the negative side of the Reagan Doctrine eventually allayed American concern about Nicaragua in 1987 (“The Reagan Doctrine,” n.d.). It should be noted that it was due to the implementation of the Reagan Doctrine that countries like Nicaragua were eventually able to claim peace because the doctrine paved the way for the start of general elections in Nicaragua. In 1990 the result was that “Nicaraguan disapproval of the Sandinistas, resulting in the end of a