USA and China – different attitudes towards securing national interests

Foreign policies of the states, which belong to great powers and to emerging powers (USA and China) have been undergoing major changes. As these powers can substantially contribute to the stabilisation of the international relations, but also the other way around, it is worth to map the areas, on which they nowadays mostly focus their interest. Using the American issue of the “democratic wars” in Iran and Afghanistan and the economic interests of China in Africa, the aim of this paper is to confront the attitudes of these powers towards the issues of securing their national interests abroad and the changing perceptions of their international politics as such. In case of the USA, the paper will mainly focus on the historical development of the attitudes that lead to nowadays interventions abroad by drawings some parallels with the British imperialism and its influence on current US political thought. It will also try to analyse the probable future development of the US attitude towards this issue and the long term sustainability of this approach. In case of China, the main stress will be laid on the long term development of its international relations with respect of securing its interests abroad and its current increase of economic engagement in the Third world countries. In conclusion, there will be drawn the positive and negative aspects of both of these attitudes, the ways they influence the perception these powers and their security in the system of international relations and some possible outcomes of their development.