FOREIGN AND MILITARY POLICY

Chapter 19

O’Connor and Sabato

American Government:

Continuity and Change

Foreign and Military Policy

In this chapter we will cover…

• The roots of American foreign and military policy

• U.S. policy during and after the Cold War

• The role of the president in foreign policy

• The ways that Congress influences foreign policy

• The challenges that the U.S. faces in the twenty-first century

The Roots of U.S. Foreign
and Military Policy

• The Constitution lays out the institutional framework for foreign and defense policy.

• Foreign policymaking power is clearly a federal power, not a power of the states.

• The Framers intended to divide responsibility for foreign affairs between the president and Congress.

The Monroe Doctrine

• In the 1820s Latin American countries began to declare their independence from European colonial powers.

• The U.S., under President James Monroe, announced that any attempt to re-extend political control over Latin America would be met with force.

World War I

• World War I broke out in Europe in 1914.

• The U.S. tried to remain neutral but was eventually forced into the war by the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

• Over 5 million Americans served in WWI.

• Following the war the U.S. and most other countries returned to policies of high tariffs and isolationism.

The United States Becomes
a World Leader

• The Great Depression and Adolf Hitler shook the U.S. out of its isolation and back onto the world stage.

• In 1939, WWII began. The United States soon found that its strategy of isolationism, unilateralism, and strict neutrality failed to make the country secure and keep it out of war.

• In December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Germany declared war on the U.S.

United Nations

• Learning from the lessons of isolationism and trade wars following WWI, the Allies took an internationalist approach following WWII.

• Before the end of WWII, FDR, Churchill, and the Allies created the United Nations to promote security of member nations and promote economic prosperity around the globe.

• The five great powers – U.S., Soviet Union, China, France, and Great Britain – were seated on the Security Council.

The Origins of the Cold War

• At the end of WWII, Joseph Stalin, leader of the USSR, encouraged the spread of communism through eastern and central Europe and into the Balkans.

• President Truman responded with the Truman Doctrine to contain the expansion of communism.

• This was the beginning of a bipartisan consensus in foreign affairs to resist communism and oppose the Soviet Union that lasted until the late 1980s.

Bretton Woods and
The Marshall Plan

• Following WWII, international institutions were established to solve global economic problems.

• The common view at the Bretton Woods meeting was that the depression of the 1930s and the rise of fascism could be traced to the collapse of international trade and isolationist foreign policies.

• The Marshall Plan was enacted to aid the recovery of war-torn European nations.

• At Bretton Woods the World Bank and IMF were established.

President of the World?

• The United States is the world’s greatest superpower.

• The US president is the most powerful foreign policymaker and world leader.

• This reality would have shocked the Founding Fathers.

Presidential Primacy in Foreign Affairs

• Since George Washington, the president has been preeminent in foreign affairs and has gotten even more powerful in recent years.

• Alexander Hamilton argued for presidential supremacy in foreign relations because foreign policy was different than domestic policy in several ways.

• It requires:

– accurate and comprehensive knowledge of the world

– a steady and systematic adherence to the same view

– a uniform sensibility to the national character

– decision, secrecy, and dispatch

Congress and Foreign Policy

• Congress has some constitutional powers (advice and consent) in foreign relations and sometimes seeks to assert them.

• Congress primarily exercises its oversight powers to hold the president accountable for his/her foreign policy.

Treaties and
Executive Agreements

The Constitution grants the president the power to commit to legally binding international commitments.

– Treaties

– Executive Agreements

– Congressional Executive Agreements

The War Powers Act

• In 1973 Congress passed the War Powers Act to limit the president’s authority to introduce American troops into hostile situations.

• All presidents since Nixon insist that this Act is unconstitutional and have ignored all or parts of the act.

• The Act limits presidential deployment of troops to 60 days without a congressional vote. The period could be extended 30 days to allow for withdrawal of troops. The president would be allowed to respond to an emergency but not wage a war without Congressional approval.

• In reality, this Act has not hindered presidents at all.

U.S. Defense Spending

The Public and Foreign Policy

• Americans are mostly indifferent to questions of foreign policy

• Americans (while uninformed) are still able to discriminate among issues and to identify those that are salient.

Relevant Foreign Policy Beliefs

• More important than interest and knowledge is whether the American people are able, in the aggregate, to hold politically relevant foreign policy beliefs.

• Most Americans cannot point to Serbia on a map and yet they do know that they do not want Americans to be sent to fight in the region.

• For the decision-maker the latter is the important fact.

American Elites

One of the sharpest distinctions in foreign policy attitudes occurs between elites and the general public.

– Elites are markedly more supportive of active involvement in world affairs than the mass public.

– They are substantially more likely to oppose economic protectionism and to support free-trade principles

– They are more likely to adopt a generally more interventionist orientation toward world affairs than the mass of the American people.

Post-Cold War World Goals

• Favor global activism but oppose aid to other nations

• Favor peace through strength but are wary of international organizations

• Fear nuclear weapons and support arms agreements

• Oppose the use of force abroad and yet support presidents when they choose force

• Worry about free trade and yet are willing to open the US to broader involvement in the political economy

Twenty-First Century Challenges