Американська історія і політика (Jan 2023)
Peace Corps in the context of new horizons of the policy of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Abstract
The article reflects the question of the volunteer movement as an integral policy of the US President J. F. Kennedy after the Second World War. The activity of the Peace Corps, founded by the 35th president of the USA, is analyzed. The purpose of the article is to analyze the main aspects of the Peace Corps activity as a component of the US President J. F. Kennedy’s «New Horizons» policy in the context of the possibility of development and use of volunteer activities in the implementation of the country’s foreign policy. The work uses general scientific methods of knowledge: historical (reveals the factors of the formation and development of the Peace Corps in historical retrospect), systemic (makes it possible to draw a complete picture of J. F. Kennedy’s foreign policy related to the struggle between democracy and totalitarianism), axiological (determines the value the essence of the institutionalization of volunteerism, its content as a type of social activity that has a humanistic potential for strengthening peace and friendship between people of different nationalities and cultures). The scientific novelty of the obtained results consists in obtaining a holistic systemic view of the peculiarities of the implementation of US state policy in the field of regulation of volunteer activities for solving foreign policy tasks. Conclusions. Summing up, the author confirms the importance of the Peace Corps as the most important element of the strategy of the US President J. F. Kennedy, which consisted in the need to reorient the US foreign policy in the Third World countries from the ideology of mutual security to the global rails of development after the Second World War. It is noted that J. F. Kennedy’s «New Horizons» policy found its embodiment in the creation of the Peace Corps, which has successfully survived decades and is still functioning, serving as an example of the activation of volunteerism in Ukraine at the beginning of the XXI century. It is emphasized that before the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war on February 24, 2022, more than 300 American volunteers of the Peace Corps worked in Ukraine, which made Ukraine the largest representation of this organization in the world. Since the start of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine, Peace Corps volunteers have left the country, but continue to coordinate nationwide efforts in support of Ukrainians, organizing charitable donations, sending needed goods to Ukraine, and using their social media to engage the public in support of Ukraine.
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