On Monday August 4, 2014, President Obama signed into law an act that provided Israel with $225 million to go towards the Iron Dome missile defense system. The Iron Dome is an incredible defense mechanism but its cost is not exactly cheap. Without American funding, Israel would struggle to operate the Iron Dome at the level it currently does.

            On April 15, 2013, two bombs exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon. It is one of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil since September 11^th. Two years prior to the Boston Marathon bombings, Israeli doctors and nurses trained the staff at Massachusetts General Hospital, where many victims were taken, on how to handle mass-casualty incidents.

            These two examples demonstrate the interdependence, a key feature of international relations liberalism, between the two countries. The two countries work together and help each other in order to gain personal benefit. If Israel did not have the help of the U.S., and if the U.S. did not have the help of Israel, both situations could have turned out to be significantly worse. Nations in today’s world should not adopt an isolationist international policy. There are so many great ideas and technology in the world today that it would be very detrimental to cut off all access to them. Take study abroad programs as an example. Students from America go to Italy, or England, or China, not just to party in a foreign country, but to learn about their culture, their way of thinking, and their ideas and theories.

            Ronald Reagan, during his presidency, adopted an anti-isolationist policy in his fight against communism. He didn’t sit in Washington, hoping that it would resolve itself. He had to be proactive in the fight for freedom against the USSR. He was committed to giving the people under Soviet rule the basic freedoms and human rights that everyone deserves. What some people may not have realized at that point was that the U.S. would also benefit from the nations under Soviet rule. Take united Germany as an example. They are the largest trading partner of the U.S. in all of Europe. Germany also contributed 5,350 troops to the War on Terror, the campaign to eliminate terrorism in the Middle East after the attacks on September 11^th.

            Another example that illustrates the point that interdependence is beneficial is the current fight against ISIL. The broad coalition of nations fighting ISIL is working together in order to eliminate the dangerous threat. Recently, the British Parliament passed legislation authorizing Great Britain to engage in air strikes against ISIL. Along with Great Britain, the U.S. and France have been executing airstrikes against ISIL in order to eliminate them. ISIL will eventually be destroyed but not because one, specific nation did all the work. It will be because all of these countries are able to come together, and work with each other to defeat them.

            Cooperation in international relations is a key component to complete any task or mission. Cooperation will benefit everyone involved. The world is a large and dangerous place and if countries are unable to work together, then they will fail in whatever they are trying to do.