The foreign policy of the Bill Clinton administration was the foreign policy of the United States during the two term Presidency of Bill Clinton, 1993 to 2001. Clinton's main foreign policy advisors were Secretaries of State Warren M. Christopher (1993–97) followed by Madeleine Albright (1997–2001) in his second term. The Cold War had ended and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union had taken place under his predecessor President George H. W. Bush, whom Clinton criticized for being too preoccupied with foreign affairs. The United States was the only remaining superpower, with a military strength far overshadowing the rest of the world. Absent the Cold War, Clinton's main priority was always domestic affairs, especially the domestic economy. Foreign-policy took a backseat, except to promote American trade, and during unexpected emergencies. His emergencies had to do with humanitarian crises which raised the issue of American or NATO or United Nations interventions to protect civilians, or armed humanitarian intervention, as the result of civil war, state collapse, or oppressive governments.
President George H. W. Bush had sent American troops on a humanitarian mission to Somalia in December of 1992. 18 of them were killed and 80 wounded in a botched raid, ordered by President Clinton, in October 1993. Public opinion, and most elite opinion, swung heavily against foreign interventions that risked the lives of American soldiers when American national interests were not directly involved. That meant humanitarian missions were problematic. Clinton agreed, and sent ground troops only once, to Haiti, where none were hurt. He sent the Air Force to do massive bombing in the former Yugoslavia, but no American crewmen were lost. The major trouble spots during his two terms were in Africa (Somalia and Rwanda) and Eastern Europe (Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia). Clinton also tried to resolve long-running conflicts in Northern Ireland, and the Middle East, particularly the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
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