A foreign policy doctrine is a general statement of foreign policy and

belief system A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take ...

through a

doctrine Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief syste ...

. In some cases, the statement is made by a political leader, typically a nation’s chief executive or chief diplomat, and comes to be named after that leader.

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

’s justification for the phased withdrawal of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

from the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, for example, came to be called the

Nixon Doctrine The Nixon Doctrine (also known as the Guam Doctrine) was put forth during a press conference in Guam on July 25, 1969 by President of the United States Richard Nixon and later formalized in his speech on Vietnamization of the Vietnam War on Novembe ...

. This pattern of naming is not universal, however; Chinese doctrines, for example, are often referred to by number. The purpose of a foreign policy doctrine is to provide general rules for the conduct of foreign policy through decisions on

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

. These rules allow the political leadership of a nation to deal with a situation and to explain the actions of a nation to other nations. “Doctrine” is usually not meant to have any negative connotations; it is especially not to be confused with “

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Isla ...

.”

Argentina

* Calvo Doctrine *

Drago Doctrine The Drago Doctrine was announced in 1902 by Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis María Drago in a diplomatic note to the United States. Perceiving a conflict between the Monroe Doctrine and the influence of European imperial powers, and rai ...

Denmark

* Ellemann–Jensen doctrine

Germany

Hallstein Doctrine The Hallstein Doctrine (), named after Walter Hallstein, was a key principle in the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1955 to 1970. As usually presented, it prescribed that the Federal Republic would not esta ...

Ulbricht Doctrine The Ulbricht Doctrine, named after East German leader Walter Ulbricht, was the assertion that normal diplomatic relations between East Germany and West Germany could occur only if both states fully recognised each other's sovereignty. That contras ...

Finland

Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine The Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine was a foreign policy doctrine established by Finnish President Juho Kusti Paasikivi and continued by his successor Urho Kekkonen, aimed at Finland's survival as an independent sovereign, democratic, and capital ...

India

* Gujral Doctrine

Japan

Fukuda Doctrine The Fukuda Doctrine is based on a speech by Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda. In 1977, while on a tour of the ASEAN member states, the prime minister made a speech in Manila in which he articulated Japan's foreign policy that later became known ...

Yoshida Doctrine The Yoshida Doctrine was a strategy adopted by Japan after its defeat in 1945 under Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, the prime minister 1948–1954. He concentrated upon reconstructing Japan's domestic economy while relying heavily on the security ...

Mexico

Estrada Doctrine The Estrada Doctrine is the name of Mexico's core foreign policy ideal from 1930 to the early 2000s, and again since 2018. Its name derives from Genaro Estrada, Secretary of Foreign Affairs during the presidency of Pascual Ortiz Rubio (1930–193 ...

Castañeda Doctrine The Castañeda Doctrine is a term used as reference to Mexico's foreign policy during the presidency of Vicente Fox. Its name derives from its proponent, Jorge Castañeda Gutman. Fox appointed Castañeda to be his Secretary of Foreign Affairs In ma ...

Poland

* Giedroyc Doctrine

Russia / Soviet Union

Brezhnev Doctrine The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet foreign policy that proclaimed any threat to socialist rule in any state of the Soviet Bloc in Central and Eastern Europe was a threat to them all, and therefore justified the intervention of fellow socialist st ...

* Gerasimov Doctrine *

Karaganov Doctrine Sergey Alexandrovich Karaganov (russian: Серге́й Алекса́ндрович Карага́нов, born 10 September 1952 in Moscow) is a Russian political scientist who heads the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a security analytic ...

Falin-Kvitsinsky Doctrine The Falin-Kvitsinsky doctrine is a political doctrine formulated in the USSR. It assumes that in relation to the former Warsaw Pact countries, the military influence of the Soviet Union was to be replaced by the dependence of these countries on Ru ...

* Primakov Doctrine *

Sinatra Doctrine The Sinatra Doctrine was a Soviet foreign policy under Mikhail Gorbachev for allowing member states of the Warsaw Pact to determine their own internal affairs. The name jokingly alluded to the song My Way popularized by Frank Sinatra—the So ...

United States

* 1823:

Monroe Doctrine The Monroe Doctrine was a United States foreign policy position that opposed European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. It held that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers was a potentially hostile act ...

* 1842:

Tyler Doctrine Tyler may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tyler (name), an English name; with lists of people with the surname or given name * Tyler, the Creator (born 1991), American rap artist and producer * John Tyler, 10th president of the United ...

* 1900: Roosevelt Doctrine * 1932:

Stimson Doctrine The Stimson Doctrine is the policy of nonrecognition of states created as a result of a war of aggression. The policy was implemented by the United States government, enunciated in a note of January 7, 1932, to the Empire of Japan and the Repub ...

* 1947:

Truman Doctrine The Truman Doctrine is an American foreign policy that pledged American "support for democracies against authoritarian threats." The doctrine originated with the primary goal of containing Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. It wa ...

* 1957:

Eisenhower Doctrine The Eisenhower Doctrine was a policy enunciated by Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 5, 1957, within a "Special Message to the Congress on the Situation in the Middle East". Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, a Middle Eastern country could request Ame ...

* 1961:

Kennedy Doctrine The Kennedy Doctrine refers to foreign policy initiatives of the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, towards Latin America during his administration between 1961 and 1963. Kennedy voiced support for the containment o ...

* 1965:

Johnson Doctrine The Johnson Doctrine, enunciated by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson after the United States' intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965, declared that domestic revolution in the Western Hemisphere would no longer be a local matter when t ...

* 1969:

* 1980:

Carter Doctrine The Carter Doctrine was a policy proclaimed by President of the United States Jimmy Carter in his State of the Union Address on January 23, 1980, which stated that the United States would use military force, if necessary, to defend its national i ...

* 1981:

Kirkpatrick Doctrine The Kirkpatrick Doctrine was the doctrine expounded by United States Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick in the early 1980s based on her 1979 essay, " Dictatorships and Double Standards".Jeane Kirkpatrick,Dictatorships and Double Sta ...

* 1984:

Weinberger Doctrine The Weinberger Doctrine was a list of points governing when the United States could commit troops in military engagements. The doctrine was publicly disclosed by U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger on November 28, 1984, in a speech entitle ...

* 1985:

Reagan Doctrine The Reagan Doctrine was stated by United States President Ronald Reagan in his State of the Union address on February 6, 1985: "We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives—on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua—to ...

* 1990: Powell Doctrine * 1999: Clinton Doctrine * 2002:

Bush Doctrine The Bush Doctrine refers to multiple interrelated foreign policy principles of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. These principles include unilateralism, preemptive war, and regime change. Charles Krauthammer first used ...

* 2002: Rumsfeld Doctrine * 2016:

Obama Doctrine The Obama Doctrine is a catch-all term frequently used to describe one or several principles of the Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration, foreign policy of U.S. President Barack Obama. It is still not agreed whether there was an actu ...