What is Foreign Policy?

A legal assistant at Colvin & Hallett in Seattle, Noah Genatossio graduated from the University of Washington with an undergraduate degree in political science and has worked in various fields over the years. Noah Genatossio’s professional interests include foreign policy.

Foreign policy refers to a country or state entity’s activities and objectives concerning its interactions with other nations, political entities, and non-state actors. These policies primarily protect the country’s national interests, which its government can carry out through diplomatic or aggressive means. A country’s foreign minister, head of government, or equivalent party is responsible for making foreign policy decisions. They also meet with the leaders of other countries to resolve international issues through diplomacy.

Furthermore, decision-makers usually structure foreign policies to support their country’s main goals, such as economic, social, and political agendas. Some objectives might include maintaining global security, fostering world peace, promoting human-rights principles, enhancing foreign trade, or cultivating a balance of power among nations.

Defense Strategies to Criminal Charges

Noah Genatossio serves as a legal assistant at the Seattle-based firm Colvin & Hallett, which he joined after earning a bachelor of arts in political science from the University of Washington. Noah Genatossio also maintains an interest in criminal defense.

In criminal cases that go to trial, defense attorneys employ various strategies depending on their client’s plea. Some of the primary criminal-defense categories include the following:

Insanity

In an insanity defense, the defense attorney aims to persuade the jury that the defendant’s mental state served as the driving force behind the crime and typically involves the testimony of psychiatrists, who attempt to explain how the defendant’s state of mind at the time of the offense impacts their culpability. Calls to revise the insanity defense to a plea of “guilty but mentally ill” have emerged.

Self-Defense

A self-defense plea refers to the use of excessive or lethal force to defend one’s life. Whether or not a person intended to harm the victim, self-defense is justifiable. All that matters with this plea is whether or not the individual perceived the posed or assumed harm in the same way a “reasonable person” would. During a trial, the attorney of a defendant claiming self-defense endeavors to prove that their client killed or injured the victim to protect themselves from the victim’s violent threats.

Innocence

As simple as this plea may appear, asserting innocence of criminal charges requires much time and effort to develop a defense strategy. This approach might entail presenting evidence demonstrating that the defendant is incapable of committing the crime in question or showing that they were not present when it occurred. Additionally, supporting evidence could include witness testimony or surveillance footage.