Chapter 20: Foreign and Military Policy



Chapter 20: Foreign and Military Policy

I. Introduction

A. All of the strategies and procedures for dealing with other nations

1. Treaties & executive agreements

2. Ambassadors

3. Foreign trade

4. Foreign aid

B. Goals

1. Protecting national security***

2. Providing international leadership in developing world peace

3. Insuring a balance of power by keeping aggressive nations form overpowering weaker ones

4. Cooperating with other nations in solving international problems

5. Promoting human rights and democratic values

6. Fostering cooperative foreign trade and globalization of trade through international organizations

C. Democracy and foreign/military policy

1. Tocqueville said that the “conduct of foreign affairs requires precisely those qualities most lacking in a democratic nation”

a. No secrecy (congressional oversight, multi-centered decision-making, media access)

b. Can’t wait patiently for consequences (the media & answer to the people)

c. As a result aggressors can bluff or misjudge us

2. Others blame reckless policies of presidents

II. Kinds of foreign policy

A. Majoritarian politics

1. Perceived to confer widespread benefits on nation as whole as well as impose widespread costs

2. Examples

a. War

b. Military alliances

c. Nuclear test ban or strategic arms limitation treaties

d. Response to Berlin blockade by Soviets

e. Cuban missile crisis

f. Covert CIA operations

g. Diplomatic recognition of People's Republic of China

3. President dominates; public opinion supports but does not guide

B. Interest group politics

1. Identifiable groups pitted against one another for costs and benefits

2. Examples

a. Cyprus policy: Greeks versus Turks

b. Tariffs: Japanese versus steel

3. Larger congressional role

C. Client politics

1. Benefits to identifiable group, without apparent costs to any distinct group

2. Example: Israel policy (transformation to interest group politics?)

3. Larger congressional role

D. Entrepreneurial politics: Congress the central political arena

III. Brief History of American Foreign Policy

A. Isolationism

1. Philosophy that we should avoid entangling alliances whenever possible

2. Until WWI and WWII

B. Internationalism

1. Join United Nations

2. Cold War

a. A struggle between the U.S. and USSR for world power consisting mainly of threats and little armed conflict

b. Containment of communism

3. Peacekeeping after the fall of the USSR

C. Preemption

1. Principle of attacking before being attacked

2. GW Bush after 9/11

3. Axis of evil – Iraq, Iran & North Korea

D. Other effects of the September 11 attacks

1. Public consciousness about international terrorism

2. Outbursts of patriotism

3. Confidence in government

4. Emergence of important fundamental questions

a. How to wage a "war" against terrorism?

b. How to hold other nations accountable?

c. How to act when other nations fight terrorism?

d. Does such a war require military to be redesigned?

5. Reemergence of classic questions

a. Do we only support nations that are reasonably free and democratic?

b. Are we the world's policemen?

IV. FP Powers

A. The Constitution creates an "invitation to struggle" between the president & Congress/ checks & balances

B. Powers of president

1. Commander-in-chief

2. Appoints ambassadors

3. Receives ambassadors

4. Negotiates treaties

5. Negotiates executive agreements

a. Agreements between president & head of other nations

b. Does not require Senate ratification

c. Gets around checks & balances

6. Grant diplomatic recognition

7. Issues FP statements

a. Informal power – don’t go through legislative process

b. Examples include Monroe Doctrine, FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy, Truman Doctrine

8. Can respond more quickly than Congress to a national crisis

a. Informal power

b. Examples include Pearl Harbor and 9/11

9. Use media to persuade (informal power)

C. Powers of Congress

1. Declare war

2. Appropriates money for defense

3. Confirms appointment of ambassadors by majority vote of Senate

4. Ratifies treaties by 2/3 vote of Senate

5. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and house Committee on Foreign Affairs make recommendations to full Congress & president on foreign relations

D. Evaluating the power of the president

1. Americans think president in charge, which history confirms

2. Depends on one's agreement/disagreement with policies

3. Supreme Court gives federal government wide powers to deal with FP and crises & is reluctant to intervene in Congress-president disputes

a. Nixon's enlarging of Vietnam war

b. Lincoln's illegal measures during Civil War

c. Carter's handling of Iranian assets

d. Franklin Roosevelt's "relocation" of 100,000 Japanese-Americans

4. Strong v. weak presidents

a. Presidents relatively strong in foreign affairs

1. More successes in Congress on foreign than on domestic affairs

2. Unilateral commitments of troops upheld but stronger than Framers intended

I. 1801: Jefferson sends navy to Barbary

II. 1845: Polk sends troops to Mexico

III. 1861: Lincoln blockades Southern ports

IV. 1940: FDR sends destroyers to Britain

V. 1950: Truman sends troops to Korea

VI. 1960s: Kennedy and Johnson send forces to Vietnam

VII. 1983: Reagan sends troops to Grenada

VIII. 1989: Bush orders invasion of Panama

IX. 1990: Bush sends forces into Kuwait

X. 1999: Clinton orders bombing of Serbian forces

XI. 2000: Bush sends troops to Afghanistan

b. Presidents comparatively weak in foreign affairs; other heads of state find U.S. presidents unable to act

1. Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt unable to ally with Great Britain before World War I and World War II

2. Wilson unable to lead U.S. into the League of Nations

3. Reagan criticized on commitments to El Salvador and Lebanon

4. Bush debated Congress on declaration of Gulf War

E. Checks on presidential power: political rather than constitutional

1. Congress controls the purse strings

2. Can limit the president's ability to give military or economic aid to other countries

a. Arms sales to Turkey

b. Blockage of intervention in Angola

c. Legislative veto (previously) on large sale of arms

3. War Powers Act of 1973

a. Provisions

1. Only sixty-day commitment of troops without declaration of war

2. All commitments reported within forty-eight hours

3. If Congress fails to approve beyond 60 days, then president must bring troops home

4. Congress passes concurrent resolution directing removal of troops, then president must comply

b. Observance

1. No president has acknowledged constitutionality

2. Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton sent troops without explicit congressional authorization

c. Supreme Court action (Chadha case)

1. Struck down the legislative veto

2. Other provisos to be tested

d. Effect of act doubtful even if upheld

1. Brief conflicts not likely to be affected; Congress has not challenged a successful operation

2. Even extended hostilities continue: Vietnam and Lebanon

4. Intelligence oversight

a. Only two committees today (previously eight)

b. No authority to disapprove covert action

c. But "covert" actions less secret after congressional debate

d. Congress sometimes blocks covert action: Boland Amendment

e. Congressional concern about CIA after attacks of September 11

V. Who helps determine FP

A. Multi-centered decision-making

1. President more involved in foreign affairs

2. Multiple agencies shape foreign policy because job too big for one person

3. Consequences of multi-centered decision-making machinery

a. "It's never over" because of rivalries within and between branches

b. Agency positions influenced by agency interests

c. Agencies not really coordinated by anyone

d. Most agencies owe no political or bureaucratic loyalty

B. Department of State

1. Major organization for carrying out foreign policy

a. Foreign Service – ambassadors & staff

2. Advises president on foreign policy matters

3. Organized into bureaus specializing in regions of the world

4. Protect Americans abroad

C. Department of Defense

1. Provided military information to president including troop movements, military installations, and weapons development

2. Secretary is a civilian so also have Joint Chiefs of Staff

D. National Security Council

1. Part of the Executive Office of the President

2. Chaired by president and includes vice president, secretaries of State and Defense, director of CIA, chair of joint chiefs, National Security Adviser

3. Coordinates foreign, military and economic policies that affect national security

4. Goal of staff is balanced view

5. Grown in influence since Kennedy but downgraded by Reagan

6. NSC rivals secretary of state for power and influence (C. Rice under G.W. Bush)

E. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

1. Gathers, analyzes and transmits secret information from outside the U.S. essential to security of the nation

2. Briefs president & National Security Council

3. Independent agency operating within executive branch

F. United States Information Agency

1. Keeps world informed about America, the American way of life, and American views on world problems through info centers around the world

2. Voice of American radio programs

G. National Intelligence Director (2004)

VI. Foreign policy and public opinion

A. Foreign policy shaped by public and elite opinion

1. Before World War II, public opposed U.S. involvement

2. World War II shifted popular opinion because

a. Universally popular war

b. War successful

c. United States emerged as world's dominant power

3. Support for active involvement persisted until Vietnam

a. Yet support for internationalism highly general

b. Public opinion now mushy and volatile

B. Public's tendency to support president in crises

1. Foreign crises increases presidential level of public approval

2. Strong support to rally 'round the flag for some but not all foreign military crises

3. Presidential support does not decrease with casualties

4. Americans support escalation rather than withdrawal in a conflict

C. Mass versus elite opinion

1. Mass opinion

a. Generally poorly informed

b. Generally supportive of president

c. Conservative, less internationalist

2. Elite opinion

a. Better informed

b. Opinions change more rapidly (Vietnam)

c. Protest on moral or philosophical grounds

d. More liberal and internationalist

D. Foreign policy elite divided

1. Worldview or comprehensive mental picture of world issues facing the United States and ways of responding to them can shape FP

a. Example: Mr. X article on containment of USSR

b. Not unanimously accepted but consistent with public's mood, events, and experience

2. Four worldviews

a. Isolation paradigm

1. Opposes involvement in European wars

2. Adopted after World War I because war accomplished little

b. Appeasement (containment) paradigm

1. Reaction to appeasement of Hitler in Munich

2. Pearl Harbor ended isolationism in United States

3. Postwar policy to resist Soviet expansionism

c. Disengagement ("Vietnam") paradigm

1. Reaction to military defeat and political disaster of Vietnam

2. Crisis interpreted in three ways

I. Correct worldview but failed to try hard enough

II. Correct worldview but applied in wrong place

III. Worldview itself wrong

3. Critics believed worldview wrong and new one based on new isolationism needed

4. Elites with disengagement view in Carter administration but were replaced during Reagan and Bush administrations

d. Human rights

1. Clinton had a disinterest in foreign policy and his advisors believed in disengagement.

2. Clinton's strongest congressional supporters argued against the Gulf War but advocated military intervention in Kosovo.

3. Change in view explained by concern for human rights and belief that situation in Kosovo amounted to genocide

4. Conservatives who supported containment in Gulf War urged disengagement in Kosovo

E. Coalition building

1. Should the United States act "alone?"

2. If so, in what circumstances?

3. G.W. Bush & invasion of Iraq

VII. Current FP issues

A. Terrorism

1. How does the U.S. defend itself against possible terrorist attacks?

2. What role will the Department of homeland Security play in intelligence gathering, border security, immigration, and holding, questioning & prosecuting suspected terrorists?

B. Nuclear proliferation

1. How do we prevent possible enemies from gaining access to nuclear technology that could be used against us or our allies?

C. International trade

1. Providing military or economic aid

2. Reducing or eliminating tariffs through trade agreements (NAFTA)

VIII. The Use of Military Force

A. Military power more important after collapse of Soviet Union and end of Cold War

1. Military force used to attack Iraq, defend Kosovo, maintain order in Bosnia, and occupy Haiti and Somalia

2. Several nations have long-range rockets and weapons of destruction

3. Many nations feel threatened by neighbors

4. Russia still has nuclear weapons

B. Majoritarian view of military

1. Almost all Americans benefit, almost all pay as taxpayers

2. President is the commander-in-chief

3. Congress plays largely a supportive role

C. Client view of military

1. Real beneficiaries of military spending are generals, admirals, big corporations, and members of Congress whose districts get fat defense contracts, but everyone pays

2. Military-industrial complex shapes what is spent

IX. The defense budget

A. Total spending

1. Small peacetime military until 1950

a. No disarmament after Korea because of Soviet threat

b. Military system designed to repel Soviet invasion of Europe and small-scale invasions

2. Public opinion supports a large military

3. Demise of USSR produced debate

a. Liberals: sharp defense cuts; United States should not serve as world's police officer

b. Conservatives: some cuts but retain well-funded military because world still dangerous

4. Desert Storm and Kosovo campaigns made clear no escaping U.S. need to use military force

5. Kosovo campaign indicated that military had been reduced too much

6. Clinton and Republican Congress called for more military spending

X. What do we buy with our money?

A. Changing circumstances make justification of expenditures complex

1. World War II and Cold War required big armies, artillery, tanks, ships, etc.

2. War on Terrorism requires small groups, special forces, high-tech communications, precision guided bombs, and rockets

3. Joint operations now also seem more necessary

B. Secretary of Defense

1. Must transform conventional military for wars on terrorism

2. Must budget in an atmosphere of debate and pressure from members of both the military and Congress

C. Debating big new weapons

1. Washington folks are used to it (B-1, B-2 bombers, MX missiles, M1 tank, etc.)

2. Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or "Star Wars") debate particularly protracted

a. Major scientific and philosophical quarrels

b. Reluctance among the military

1. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) requires more missiles and bombers

2. SDI may reduce spending on missiles and bombers

c. Concern MAD only works against rational leaders

XI. What do we get for our money?

A. Personnel

1. Move from draft to all-volunteer force in 1973

2. Volunteer force improved as result of:

a. Increases in military pay

b. Rising civilian unemployment

3. Changes in military

a. More women in military

b. Ban of women on combat ships lifted in 1993 but Congress to be consulted if ground combat involved

c. "Don't ask, don't tell" compromise adopted by Clinton on homosexuals in military

B. Big-ticket hardware

1. Aircraft carriers, missile systems, tanks, bombers, etc.

2. Main reasons for cost overruns

a. Unpredictability of cost of new items

b. Contractor incentives to underestimate at first

c. Military chiefs want best weapons money can buy

d. "Sole sourcing" of weapons without competitive bids

e. Holding down budget by "stretching out" production

3. Latter four factors can be controlled; first cannot

C. Small-ticket items

1. Seemingly outrageous prices come from allocation of overhead, small run of items produced

2. Others result from "gold-plating" phenomenon

D. Readiness and training

1. Favorite area for short-term budget cutting

2. Other cuts would hurt constituents

3. Cuts here show up quickly in money saved

E. Bases

1. At one time, a lot of bases opened and few closed

2. Commission on Base Realignment and Closure created to take client politics out of base closings

3. Congress must vote on all closings as whole not individually

XII. Structure of defense decision-making

A. National Security Act of 1947

1. Department of Defense

a. Secretary of Defense (civilian, as are secretaries of the army, navy, and air force)

b. Joint Chiefs of Staff (military)

2. Reasons for separate uniformed services

a. Fear that unified military will become too powerful

b. Desire of services to preserve their autonomy

c. Interservice rivalries intended by Congress to receive maximum information

B. 1986 defense reorganization plan

1. Joint Chiefs of Staff

a. Composed of uniformed head of each service with a chair and vice chair appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate

b. Chair since 1986 principal military adviser to president

2. Joint Staff

a. Officers from each service assisting JCS

b. Since 1986 serves chair; promoted at same rate

3. The services

a. Each service headed by a civilian secretary responsible for purchasing and public affairs

b. Senior military officer oversees discipline and training

4. The chain of command

a. Chair of JCS does not have combat command

b. Uncertainty whether 1986 changes will work

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download